UNIVERSITY  FARM 


The  Chalk  Cliffs 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF 
ENGLAND 


BY 


EDWARD   P.   CHEYNEY 

PROFESSOR  OF  EUROPEAN  HISTORY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 
PENNSYLVANIA 


GTNN  &   COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  -  CHICAGO^  •  LONDON 


ENTERED  AT  STATIONERS'  HALL 


COPYRIGHT,  1904,  BY 
EDWARD  P.  CHEYNEY 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 
68.12 


TEftc 


G1NN   &   COMPANY  •  PRO- 
PRIETORS  •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 


IN  studying  and  teaching  history  I  have  been  convinced  of  the 
desirability  of  making  certain  fundamental  facts  absolutely  clear 
and  familiar.  An  acquaintance  with  the  physical  and  political 
geography  of  a  country  makes  the  events  of  its  history  seem  real 
and  natural ;  a  knowledge  of  the  race  elements  of  a  people  gives 
the  strongest  impression  of  the  continuity  of  its  history ;  a  study 
of  the  early  political  and  ecclesiastical  organization  of  a  nation 
makes  comprehensible  later  changes.  I  have  therefore  striven,  in 
the  first  place,  to  give  a  full  and  clear  description  of  early  insti- 
tutions and  conditions. 

Secondly,  I  have  tried  to  select  from  the  mass  of  historical 
detail  what  was  significant  rather  than  what  was  merely  conspicu- 
ous, —  what  either  gave  shape  and  character  to  a  considerable 
period  of  history,  or  was  a  clearly  marked  step  in  the  general 
development  of  the  nation.  Detached  episodes  and  merely 
striking  occurrences,  especially  those  in  the  field  of  military  his- 
tory, have  been  hastened  over  in  order  that  more  attention  might 
be  given  to  the  really  great  movements  and  influential  men. 

Thirdly,  I  have  clung  pretty  closely  to  the  thread  of  English 
history,  only  introducing  mention  of  other  countries  when  their 
connection  with  England  was  especially  close.  Since  England's 
story  is  so  long  and  so  eventful,  I  have  felt  that  it  had  better  here 
be  told  as  simply,  clearly,  and  continuously  as  possible,  for  its  own 
sake,  rather  than  to  complicate  it  by  including  many  facts  drawn 
from  the  history  of  other  countries. 

Finally,  I  have  omitted  altogether  statements  and  allusions  the 
significance  of  which  could  not  be  explained  in  the  book ;  and 

ill 

198630 


iv  PREFACE 

have  tried,  on  the  other  hand,  to  give  a  clear  and  adequate  expla- 
nation of  all  matters  that  have  been  taken  up.  It  is  true  that  this 
practice  may  seem  to  disregard  the  teacher,  who  would  presumably 
be  competent  to  explain  those  things  to  which  the  author  alludes 
and  to  interpret  what  he  merely  states.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
student  must  usually  deal  with  the  text-book  when  he  is  alone, 
and  may  be  glad  to  have  everything  clear  at  first ;  while  the  well- 
qualified  teacher  will  find  a  more  useful  and  interesting  function  in 
testing  comprehension,  providing  further  illustrations,  drawing  out 
international  relations,  and  adding  personal  details  to  the  neces- 
sarily general  statements  of  the  text-book. 

The  desirability  of  using  outside  readings,  both  of  general  works 
and  contemporary  sources,  in  connection  with  the  text-book, 
cannot  be  too  strongly  urged.  Indications  of  works  in  which 
such  readings  may  be  found,  further  guidance  for  the  teacher's 
own  study,  and  suggestions  for  the  preparation  of  reports  on 
special  topics  are  added  to  each  chapter.  The  most  useful  and 
accessible  of  the  works  referred  to,  which  might  well  be  provided 
in  every  school  library,  are  named,  with  their  publishers,  in  an 
appended  bibliographical  list.  A  book  of  readings  in  primary 
sources,  intended  to  be  used  in  connection  with  this  text-book, 
is  being  prepared,  and  will,  it  is  hoped,  be  of  value  to  teachers 
and  students  in  illustrating  and  giving  further  significance  to  the 
long  and  varied  history  of  England. 

It  remains  only  to  make  a  grateful  acknowledgment  to  the 
many  colleagues  and  friends  who  have  given  valuable  assistance 
and  good  advice  during  the  preparation  of  the  book,  and  to  those 
authors  and  publishers  who  have  permitted  the  reproduction  of 

maps  and  illustrations. 

EDWARD  P.  CHEYNEY. 

UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA, 
June  4,  1904. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I.  THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ENGLAND i 

The  British  Isles.  The  Coasts  and  Rivers  of  England.  Sur- 
face and  Climate.  Forests  and  Swamps.  Natural  Products. 

CHAPTER  II.   PREHISTORIC  AND  CELTIC  BRITAIN    ....     12 

Prehistoric  Races.  Caesar's  Invasion  and  Description  of  Britain. 
The  Celtic  Races. 

CHAPTER  III.   ROMAN  BRITAIN 20 

The  Roman  Conquest.  Romanizing  of  the  Province.  Growth 
of  Roman  Towns  in  Britain.  Roman  Building.  Rural  Life. 
Roads  and  Industries.  Language  and  Religion.  Decay  of 
Roman  Britain.  Summary  of  the  Roman  Period. 

CHAPTER  IV.  EARLY  SAXON  ENGLAND  (400-830)  ....  36 

Settlements  of  the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes.  The  Early 
Kingdoms.  The  New  Race,  Language,  Religion,  and  Govern- 
ment. Barbarism.  The  Mission  of  Augustine.  The  Conver- 
sion of  Northumbria  and  the  Scottish  Missions.  The  Synod  of 
Whitby.  Organization  of  the  Christian  Church  in  England. 
Revival  of  Civilization.  Internal  Strife  of  the  Kingdoms.  Nor- 
thumbria and  Mercia.  West-Saxon  Overlordship.  Summary  of 
the  Early  Saxon  Period. 

CHAPTER  V.    LATER  SAXON  ENGLAND  (830-975)     ....     59 

The  Incursions  of  the  Danes.  Formation  of  the  Danelaw. 
The  Danes  as  Traders.  King  Alfred  and  his  Reforms.  Alfred's 
Interests  and  Character.  Closer  Union  of  England.  Winning 
Back  of  the  Danelaw.  Rural  Life  in  England  in  the  Tenth 
Century.  Town  Life  in  the  Tenth  Century.  Literature  and 
Learning  in  the  Tenth  Century.  Dunstan.  Political  Organiza- 
tion. Classes  and  Ranks.  Summary  of  the  Late  Saxon  Period. 

v 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VI.    THE  DANISH  AND  THE  NORMAN  CONQUESTS 

(975-1071) 85 

Renewed  Invasion  of  the  Danes.  Danegeld.  Reign  of  Cnut. 
Connection  of  England  with  Normandy.  The  Reign  of  Edward 
the  Confessor.  Duke  William  and  Earl  Harold.  Invasion  by 
William.  The  Battle  of  Hastings  or  Senlac.  The  Conquest  of 
England.  Summary  of  the  Period  of  Conquest. 

CHAPTER  VII.  ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS  (1066-1154)  102 

The  Norman  Aristocracy.  Military  Services.  Bishops  and 
Abbots.  The  Common  People.  The  Norman  French  Lan- 
guage. Reign  of  William  I.  William  and  the  Papacy.  Old 
and  New  Customs  under  the  Normans.  Domesday  Book.  Wil- 
liam II.  Lanfranc  and  Anselm.  Henry  I.  Conflicts  with  the 
Church  and  the  Barons.  Reforms  in  Government.  The  Succes- 
sion. King  Stephen.  The  Mediaeval  Castle.  Feudalism.  Suc- 
cession of  Henry  of  Anjou.  Literature  of  the  Norman  Period. 
Architecture  and  Building.  Summary  of  the  Norman  Period. 

CHAPTER   VIII.    THE   FOUNDATIONS   OF    NATIONAL   UNITY 

(1154-1216) 145 

Accession  and  Character  of  Henry  II.  Henry's  Dominions. 
Lack  of  Unity  in  England.  Restoration  of  Order.  The  Jury 
System.  The  Common  Law.  The  Assize  of  Arms.  Feudal 
Taxation.  The  Church.  Thomas  Becket.  New  Revolt  of  the 
Baronage.  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ireland.  The  Literary  Revival 
under  Henry  II.  Richard  I  and  the  Crusades.  King  John.  Loss 
of  the  Continental  Provinces.  Struggle  with  the  Church.  The 
Great  Charter.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1154  to  1216. 

CHAPTER    IX.     THE    FORMATION    OF    A    UNITED    ENGLISH 

NATION  (1216-1337) 186 

Accession  of  Henry  III.  Architecture.  The  Universities. 
Writers.  The  Scriptorium  of  a  Monastery.  The  Friars.  The 
Towns  in  the  Thirteenth  Century.  The  Gilds.  Fairs.  Country 
Villages.  Serfs  and  Freemen.  Written  Records.  Reign  of 
Henry  III.  Papal  Representatives  in  England.  Italian  Holders 
of  English  Church  Positions.  Growth  of  the  Power  of  the  Great 
Council.  Simon  of  Montfort  and  the  Provisions  of  Oxford. 
Accession  of  Edward  I.  Parliament.  Statutes.  The  Confir- 
mation of  the  Charters.  The  Jews.  The  Conquest  of  Wales. 
The  Conquest  of  Scotland.  Edward  II.  The  Minority  of 
Edward  III.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1216  to  1337. 


CONTENTS  vii 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  X.   THE  FIRST   HALF  OF  THE   HUNDRED  YEARS' 

WAR  (1338-1399)    ..............  23o 


Outbreak  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  The  Battles  of  Sluys 
and  Crecy.  The  English  Long-bow.  The  Organization  of  the 
English  Army.  The  Capture  of  Calais.  The  Black  Prince. 
Knighthood.  The  Battle  of  Poitiers.  Peace  of  Bretigny.  Stat- 
utes of  Provisors  and  Praemunire.  The  Black  Death.  The 
Statutes  of  Laborers.  Improvement  in  the  Position  of  Villeins. 
Renewal  of  the  Long  War.  Parliamentary  Agitation.  The  Poll 
Taxes.  The  Peasants'  Insurrection  of  1381.  Wycliffe  and  the 
Lollards.  Increasing  Use  of  the  English  Language.  Piers 
Plowman.  Chaucer.  Reign  of  Richard  II.  Summary  of  the 
Period  from  1338  to  1399. 


CHAPTER    XL    THE    HOUSES    OF    LANCASTER    AND    YORK 

(1399-1485)     .^    ............     ...  264 

Reign  of  Henry  IV.  Rebellion  of  Owen  Glendower.  Joan  of 
Arc.  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Edward  IV.  Towns  in  the  Fifteenth 
Century.  Foreigners  in  England.  Richard  III  and  Henry  VII. 
Summary  of  the  Period  from  1399  to  1485. 


CHAPTER  XII.   THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD  (1485-1558)     .  278 

Henry  VII.  Court  of  Star  Chamber.  Strong  Monarchy.  The 
Merchant  Adventurers.  The  New  World.  The  New  Learning 
and  the  Invention  of  Printing.  Henry  VIII.  Wolsey,  Foreign 
Wars,  and  the  Amicable  Loan.  The  Divorce  Question  and  the 
Fall  of  Wolsey.  Submission  of  the  Clergy.  Foundations  of  the 
Reformation.  The  Reformation  Statutes.  The  Dissolution  of 
the  Monasteries.  Destruction  of  Relics  and  Shrines.  Execution 
of  More  and  Fisher.  Pilgrimage  of  Grace.  Ireland.  Stages  of 
the  Reformation.  The  King's  Marriages.  Succession  to  the 
Crown.  The  Protectorate.  The  Completion  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  Dissolution  of  the  Chantries.  Schools.  Inclosures. 
Fall  of  Somerset.  The  Debasement  of  the  Coinage.  Close  of 
the  Reign  of  Edward  VI.  The  Plot  for  the  Succession  of  Lady 
Jane  Grey.  Queen  Mary  and  the  Catholic  Reaction.  The  Span- 
ish Marriage.  Loss  of  Calais.  The  Restoration  of  the  Papal 
Control.  Mary's  Declining  Health  and  Happiness.  Summary  of 
the  Period  from  1485  to  1558. 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XIII.    THE  REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH  (1558-1603)      .  330 

The  New  Queen.  The  Religious  Settlement.  The  Catholics 
and  the  Puritans.  The  Political  Settlement.  The  Social  Settle- 
ment. Restoration  of  the  Coinage.  The  Statute  of  Apprentices. 
Pauperism.  Elizabeth's  Court.  Mary  Stuart.  The  Reformation 
in  Scotland.  Mary  and  Elizabeth.  The  Murder  of  Darnley.  Expul- 
sion of  Mary  from  Scotland.  Elizabeth's  Marriage  Plans.  In- 
crease of  Puritanism.  The  Counter  Reformation  and  the  Jesuits. 
Political  Danger  from  the  Catholics.  England  and  the  Conti- 
nent. The  Parties  which  favored  Elizabeth.  Industrial  and 
Commercial  Growth.  Attempted  Settlements  in  America.  The 
Search  for  a  Northwest  Passage.  Hawkins's  Voyages.  Francis 
Drake.  The  Channel  Freebooters.  Babington's  Plot.  Trial 
and  Execution  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  The  Spanish  Armada.  ' 
The  Successful  Period  of  Elizabeth's  Reign.  The  Elizabethan 
Poor  Law.  Increasing  Wealth  of  England.  Dress,  Eating,  and 
Building.  Royal  Progresses.  Elizabethan  Literature.  Shake- 
speare and  the  Elizabethan  Drama.  The  Close  of  the  Reign. 
Summary  of  the  Period  of  Elizabeth. 


CHAPTER  XIV.   THE  PERSONAL  MONARCHY  OF  THE  EARLY 

STUARTS  (1603-1640)       383 

James  I.  The  Established  Church  and  the  Puritans.  The 
Royalist  and  Parliamentarian  Ideal  of  Government.  The  Hamp- 
ton Court  Conference.  The  New  Version  of  the  Scriptures. 
The  Gunpowder  Plot.  The  Proposed  Union  of  the  Two  King- 
doms. The  Spanish  and  French  Marriage  Negotiations.  The 
King's  Favorites,  Somerset  and  Buckingham.  Raleigh.  Raleigh's 
Last  Expedition  and  Death.  Settlements  in  America.  The  Pil- 
grim Fathers  and  the  Puritans.  The  East  India  and  Other  Com- 
panies. Discord  between  the  King  and  the  Nation.  Discord 
between  the  King  and  Parliament.  Close  of  the  Reign  of  James  I. 
Charles  I.  Wars  with  Spain  and  France.  Charles  and  Par- 
liament. The  Petition  of  Right.  Disputes  on  Religion  and 
Taxation.  Personal  Government  of  Charles.  Punishment  by 
Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission.  The  Metropolitical  Visi- 
tation. The  Declaration  of  Sports.  Distraint  of  Knighthood, 
Monopolies,  and  the  Forests.  Ship  Money.  The  Earl  of  Straf- 
ford  the  Principal  Minister.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1603 
to  1640. 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XV.    THE  GREAT  REBELLION  AND  THE  COMMON- 
WEALTH (1640-1660) 431 

The  Scottish  Rebellion.  The  Short  Parliament.  The  Long 
Parliament.  Execution  of  Strafford.  Constitutional  Reform. 
The  Grand  Remonstrance.  The  Religious  Question.  The  Irish 
Rebellion.  Attempted  Seizure  of  the  Five  Members.  The 
Militia.  The  Civil  War.  The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 
Oliver  Cromwell.  Presbyterians  and  Independents.  The  New 
Model  Army.  Defeat  of  the  King  at  Naseby.  Negotiations 
with  the  King.  The  Second  Civil  War.  Pride's  Purge.  The 
Trial  and  Execution  of  the  King.  The  Commonwealth.  Con- 
quest of  Ireland  and  Scotland.  The  Navigation  Acts  and  the 
Dutch  War.  Expulsion  of  the  Xong  Parliament  by  Cromwell. 
The  Little  Parliament.  The  Protectorate.  Summary  of  the 
Period  from  1640  to  1660. 

CHAPTER  XVI.    THE  RESTORATION   AND  THE  REVOLUTION 

OF  1688  (1660-1689)    466 

The  Declaration  of  Breda.  The  Action  of  Parliament.  The 
Dissenters.  The  Declarations  of  Indulgence.  Titus  Gates  and 
the  Popish  Plot.  The  Exclusion  Bills  and  the  Succession  to  the 
Crown.  Dread  of  Civil  War.  Execution  of  Russell  and  Sidney. 
The  Triple  Alliance.  Subserviency  of  Charles  II  to  France. 
Third  War  with  the  Dutch.  Charles  and  his  Ministers.  Claren- 
don and  the  Cabal.  Recognition  of  the  Power  of  Parliament. 
Growth  of  Political  Parties.  The  Attack  on  the  Charters.  Cre- 
ation of  the  Standing  Army.  Milton.  Bunyan.  The  Habeas 
Corpus  Act.  The  Plague  and  the  Great  Fire.  Architecture  and 
Painting.  Science.  Chocolate,  Coffee,  and  Tea.  Newspapers. 
Death  of  Charles  II.  Accession  of  James  II.  Invasion  of  the 
Duke  of  Monmouth.  The  Bloody  Assizes.  Use  of  the  Dis- 
pensing Power.  The  Two  Declarations  of  Indulgence.  Petition 
of  the  Seven  Bishops.  Birth  of  a  Prince.  Invasion  of  William 
of  Orange.  William  and  Mary  elected  to  the  Throne.  The  Revo- 
lution of  1688.  The  Bill  of  Rights.  Annual  Taxes  and  the 
Mutiny  Act.  The  Toleration  Act.  Liberty  of  the*  Press.  Sum- 
mary of  the  Period  from  1660  to  1689. 

CHAPTER    XVII.     FOUNDATION    OF    THE    BRITISH    EMPIRE 

(1689-1763) 516 

Battle  of  the  Boyne.  Reconquest  of  Ireland.  Massacre  of 
Glencoe.  England  and  France.  Personal  and  Political  Position 


FULL-PAGE   ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Chalk  Cliffs Frontispiece 

FACING    PAGE 

English  Verdure,  Aldenham  Park,  Hertfordshire 6 

The  Years  786-790  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 68 

A  Page  of  Domesday  Book 112 

Durham  Cathedral ^ 142 

Bodiam  Castle,  built  in  the  Fourteenth  Century 226 

Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk :  a  fortified  Manor  House  of  the  Wars  of  the 

Roses 274 

Elizabeth  and  her  Courtiers :  a  Painting  of  1571 372 

Village  of  Elstow,  Bedfordshire,  where  Bunyan  was  born 492 

Part  of  the  City  of  Benares,  India 570 

Early  Railroad  Trains 634 

Houses  of  Parliament,  built  1852 658 


xii 


LIST  OF  SKETCH  AND  COLORED  MAPS 


Physical  Map  of  Britain       4-5 

Forests  and  Swamps  of  Early  Britain 9 

Celtic  Tribes  of  Britain 15 

Roman  Britain 24 

Settlements  of  the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes 38 

Anglo-Saxon  Kingdoms 55 

England  divided  into  Bishoprics 56 

The  Danelaw 62 

Principal  Early  Monasteries 77 

England  divided  into  Shires 78 

Dominions  of  Cnut 86 

Campaigns  of  William  the  Conqueror 99 

Dominions  of  William  the  Conqueror 106 

Dominions  of  the  Angevin  Kings 146 

Ireland  in  the  Middle  Ages 169 

Scotland  in  the  Thirteenth  Century 223 

Wool-Raising  Districts  of  England 232 

France  according  to  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny 242 

Counties  and  Towns  of  England  in  the  Sixteenth  Century     ....  283 

Early  Explorations 357 

Route  of  the  Armada 365 

Parties  in  the  Civil  War 442 

France  and  the  Netherlands facing  page  530 

England,  France,  and  Spain  in  America 560 

India  in  the  time  of  Clive 566 

India  in  the  time  of  the  Sepoy  Rebellion 650 

Canada  in  1904 666 

Australia  and  New  Zealand  in  1904 670 

Africa 674 

Territories  of  Great  Britain,  United  States,  and  Germany       ....  676 

xiii 


GENEALOGICAL  TABLES 

PAGE 

The  Norman  Kings 113 

West-Saxon  Descent  of  the  Later  Kings 121 

Henry  II  and  his  Sons 145 

Claim  of  Edward  III  to  the  French  Crown 231 

Yorkist  Claim  to  the  Crown 270 

Descent  of  the  Tudor  Sovereigns "...  278 

Relationship  of  Elizabeth  and  Mary  Queen  of  Scots 340 

Descent  of  James  I 3^3 

The  Stuart  Family 384 

Descent  of  George  I       529 

The  Hanoverian  Line  of  Kings 543 

Descent  of  Queen  Victoria , 632 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  FOR  FURTHER  READING 


GENERAL  WORKS 

Green,  A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  I  vol.     Harper. 
Green,  A  History  of  the  English  People,  4  vols.     Harper. 
Bright,  A  History  of  England,  5  vols.     Longmans. 
Gardiner,  A  Student's  History  of  England,  i  vol.     Longmans. 
Traill,  Social  England,  6  vols.     Putnam. 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  63  vols.     Macmillan. 
Rhys,  Celtic  Britain,  i  vol.     S.  P.  C.  K. 
Scarth,  Roman  Britain,  i  vol.     S.  P.  C.  K. 
Allen,  Saxon  Britain,  i  vol.     S.  P.  C.  K. 
Hunt,  Norman  Britain,  i  vol.     S.  P.  C.  K. 

Wakeman,  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  \  vol.     Macmillan. 
Montague,  English  Constitutional  History,  i  vol.     Longmans. 
Cheyney,  English  Social  and  Industrial  History,  i  vol.     Macmillan. 
McCarthy,  History  of  Our  Own  Times,  3  vols.     Harper. 
Robinson,  History  of  Western  Europe,  i  vol.     Ginn  &  Company. 
Epochs  of  Modern  History,  12  vols.,  referring  to  England.     Longmans. 
Twelve  English  Statesmen,  12  vols.     Macmillan. 
Kingsford,  Henry  V,  i  vol.     Putnam. 
Firth,  Cromwell,  i  vol.     Putnam. 
Oman,  Warwick  the  Kingmaker,  i  vol.     Macmillan. 
Woodward,  Expansion  of  the  British  Empire,  i  vol.     Macmillan. 
Morris,  Ireland,  f^g^-iSgS,  i  vol.     Macmillan. 
Edwards,  Wales,  i  vol.     Putnam. 

Hume  Brown,  History  of  Scotland,  3  vols.     Macmillan. 
Mackinder,  Britain  and  the  British  Seas,  i  vol.     Appleton. 
Jusserand,  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages,  i  vol.     Putnam. 
Jessopp,  The  Coming  of  the  Friars,  and  Other  Essays,  i  vol.    Putnam. 
Macaulay,  Essays  on  Burleigh,  Bacon,  Hampden,  Milton,   Temple,  Clive.. 
Hastings,  Chatham,  and  Pitt.     Various  editions. 

Other  works  are  referred  to  in  the  bibliographical  notes  at  the  end  of 
each  chapter. 


xvi       LIST  OF  BOOKS   FOR  FURTHER  READING 


COLLECTIONS   OF   CONTEMPORARY    SOURCES 

Kendall,  Source-Book  of  English  History,  i  vol.     Macmillan. 

Colby,  Selections  from  the  Sources  of  English  History ',  I  vol.     Longmans. 

Lee,  Source-Book  of  English  History,     i  vol.     Holt. 

Translations  and  Reprints  from  the  Original  Sources  of  European  History, 
6  vols.  University  of  Pennsylvania.  [The  separate  numbers  in  this 
series  referring  to  English  history  are  The  Early  Reformation  Period 
in  England ;  Documents  Illustrative  of  English  Constitutional  History  ; 
England  in  the  Age  of  Wycliff  ;  Manorial  Documents ;  Documents 
Concerning  Towns  and  Gilds  ;  Documents  Illustrative  of  Feudalism, .] 

English  History  Illustrated  from  Original  Sources,  1215-1715,  5  vols.  Black. 

Adams  and  Stephens,  Select  Documents  of  English  Constitutional  History, 
i  vol.  Macmillan. 

Other  sources  are  given  in  the  bibliographical  notes  at  the  end  of  each 
chapter. 

A  full  list  of  historical  novels  can  be  found  in  Nields,  A  Guide  to  the  Best 
Historical  Novels  and  Talcs,  i  vol.  Putnam. 


A  SHORT 
HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

CHAPTER   I 
THE  GEOGRAPHY  OF  ENGLAND 

i.  The  British  Isles.  — The  British  Isles  are  cut  off  from  the 
rest  of  Europe  by  the  waters  of  the  English  Channel  and  the 
North  Sea,  and  their  people  have  therefore  lived  a  life  much 
apart  from  that  of  the  other  nations  of  Europe.  The  sea  forms 
their  natural  frontier  and  has  given  as  much  independence  to 
their  history  as  it  has  detachment  to  their  geographical  position. 
Although  in  early  times  there  were  frequent  invasions  from  the 
continent,  as  time  has  gone  on  and  national  unity  been  more 
completely  attained,  the  island  home  of  the  English  people  has 
proved  to  be  especially  easy  to  defend.  At  several  critical  times 
good  fortune  has  transformed  the  narrow  seas1  into  a  stormy 
and  impassable  barrier,  and  saved  the  island  from  conquest  or 
from  a  difficult  struggle  on  its  own  soil. 

In  the  few  instances  in  which  successful  invasions  and  settle- 
ments have  taken  place  they  have  been  more  gradual  in  their 
progress  than  they  would  have  been  if  the  invaders  had  come 
by  land.  The  country  has  had  time  to  absorb  Saxon,  Dane,  and 

1  "  The  narrow  seas,"  or  "  the  British  seas,"  is  an  expression  applied  to 
the  English  Channel  and  that  part  of  the  North  Sea  which  lies  between 
England  and  Holland.  England  formerly  claimed  to  have  control  over 
these  waters. 

I 


2  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

Norman,  and  transform  them  into  its  own  island  race.  The 
same  is  true  of  more  peaceful  influences.  Many  customs  lying 
in  the  realms  of  language,  law,  trade,  agriculture,  and  manufactures 
have  been  borrowed  or  learned  by  the  English  from  foreigners. 
But  they  have  received  all  these  things  slowly  and  gradually,  and 
have  thus  assimilated  them  to  their  own  national  customs. 

Yet  this  isolation  of  England  and  its  detachment  from  the  con- 
tinent must  not  be  exaggerated.  The  width  of  the  intervening 
waters  is  not  great.  The  Strait  of  Dover  where  it  is  narrowest  is 
but  twenty-one  miles  wide ;  the  Channel  but  one  hundred  and 
twenty  and  the  North  Sea  but  three  hundred  miles  where  they 
are  broadest.  From  a  point  about  half  way  along  the  southern 
coast  of  England  to  another  more  than  one  third  of  the  way  along 
the  eastern  coast  there  is  a  stretch  in  which  the  British  and  the 
continental  shores  are  so  near  to  one  another  that  in  all  but  the 
most  unfavorable  weather  a  few  hours'  sailing  will  bring  a  boat 
from  one  coast  to  the  other. 

From  a  geological  point  of  view  it  is  only  in  recent  ages  that 
the  British  Isles  have  been  separated  by  water  from  the  continent 
of  Europe.  The  ancient  edge  of  the  continent  lay  far  to  the  west- 
ward of  the  present  coast,  and  the  seas  around  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  are  comparatively  shallow  waters  which  have  in  a  late 
geological  period  overspread  the  lower-lying  lands.  The  earliest 
inhabitants  of  Britain  came  in  all  probability  by  land,  not  by 
water.  It  is  scarcely  more  than  an  accident  that  the  coasts  of 
France,  Belgium,  and  Holland  are  separated  from  those  of  Eng- 
land by  a  shallow  sea  rather  than  by  a  level  plain.  Both  coasts 
are  comparatively  low  and  provided  with  numerous  harbors. 
Hence  the  countries  on  the  two  sides  of  the  narrow  seas  have 
always  been  easily  accessible  to  one  another.  They  are  natural 
neighbors,  much  alike  in  the  character  of  their  coast,  surface, 
productions,  and  even  population. 

There  has  been  much  besides  these  geographical  features  through 
all  the  later  centuries  of  history  to  bring  about  intercourse  between 


THE   GEOGRAPHY  OF  ENGLAND  3 

England  and  the  mainland.  Scarcely  any  great  influence  that 
affected  the  continental  countries  failed  to  make  at  least  some 
impression  on  England.  As  its  history  is  studied  it  will  be  found 
that  along  with  its  distinctiveness  and  marked  national  peculiari- 
ties it  has  had  much  in  common  with  the  other  countries  of  Europe 
and  has  been  constantly  influenced  by  them. 

Within  the  group  of  the  British  Isles  the  geographical  forma- 
tion tends  to  separate  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales  from  England 
and  from  one  another.  The  long,  narrow  shape  of  the  principal 
island  made  union  of  all  its  inhabitants  into  one  nation  difficult. 
The  English  and  Scotch  at  its  two  ends  naturally  grew  up  into 
two  separate  peoples,  and  the  mountains  of  Wales  long  kept  the 
race  which  inhabited  that  region  separate.  The  Irish  Sea  and 
St.  George's  Channel  separated  Ireland  and  its  inhabitants  from 
all  of  these. 

Of  these  four  principal  divisions  of  the  islands  England  is 
marked  out  by  nature  to  be  the  most  important.  Its  territory 
is  a  continuous,  unbroken  stretch,  filling  far  the  largest  part  of 
the  larger  island ;  it  is  provided  with  a  greater  variety  of  natural 
resources  ;  and  it  is  nearer  to  the  continent  of  Europe.  England 
has  therefore  always  been  in  advance  of  the  other  divisions  of  the 
British  Isles,  and  their  history  has  been  largely  dependent  on  hers. 

In  ancient  times  and  the  middle  ages  the  situation  of  England 
was  on  the  distant  verge  of  the  world  as  it  was  then  known. 
Since  the  discovery  of  America  and  of  sea  routes  around  the 
world,  her  position  has  been  much  more  central  and  advanta- 
geous. In  early  times,  therefore,  England  was  a  comparatively 
inconspicuous  country  in  Europe  ;  in  modern  times  she  has  played 
a  vastly  more  important  part.  Her  position  as  an  island  and  her 
location  in  the  far  northwest  of  Europe  have  given  her  a  particu- 
larly favorable  opportunity  to  develop  commerce  and  to  found 
a  colonial  empire. 

Yet  England  is  a  small  country.  Its  area,  with  Wales,  is 
58,320  square  miles,  —  about  equal  to  Scotland  and  Ireland 


4  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

together,  somewhat  larger  than  the  state  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
almost  exactly  the  same  as  the  state  of  Michigan.  It  is  365 
miles  in  length  from  north  to  south,  and  280  miles  in  its  greatest 
breadth  from  east  to  west. 

2 .  The  Coasts  and  Rivers  of  England.  —  That  part  of  the  coast 
of  England  which  lies  nearest  to  the  continent  is  made  conspic- 
uous by  the  long  line  of  white  chalk  cliffs  that  face  the  sea. 
They  rise  two  or  three  hundred  feet  above  the  narrow  strip  of 
stony  strand  at  the  edge  of  the  water,  and  extend  for  many  miles 
along  the  southeastern  and  southern  coast.  These  white  cliffs 
are  visible  in  clear  weather  from  the  opposite  shore  where  the 
Channel  is  narrowest,  and  from  far  out  at  sea  where  the  waters 
are  wider.  They  have  served  as  a  landmark  to  friend  and  foe 
in  all  ages,  and  the  old  poetic  name  of  Albion *  is  said  to  be  due 
to  the  white  front  which  Britain  turns  toward  the  continent. 

Although  much  of  the  coast  is  cliff-bound,  there  are  at  least 
equal  stretches  of  low-lying  shore,  especially  on  the  eastern  coast. 
Both  the  cliffs  and  the  low  shores  are  cut  by  many  bays  and  har- 
bors. Most  of  these  are  the  mouths  of  rivers  which  have  been 
converted  into  estuaries  by  the  gradual  sinking  of  the  coast  which 
has  been  in  progress  for  long  ages.2  This  subsidence  has  allowed 
the  sea  to  flow  part  way  up  the  courses  of  the  rivers,  filling  with 
its  waters  the  lower  reaches  of  their  valleys.3  Harbors  are  therefore 
as  numerous  as  the  rivers  ;  there  is  in  fact  no  considerable  stretch 
on  the  whole  coast  of  England  without  its  harbor.  Especially  is 

1  From  Latin  albus,  white.     Shakespeare  describes  England  as 

that  pale,  that  white-faced  shore, 
Whose  foot  spurns  back  the  ocean's  roaring  tides 
And  coops  from  other  lands  her  islanders. 

King  John,  Act  II,  sc.  i. 

2  Even  within  the  last  few  centuries  several  hundred  square  miles  of 
territory,  including  the  sites  of  some  thirty-five  towns  and  villages,  have 
gradually  crumbled  and  slipped  into  the  sea  or  been  submerged  by  the 
advancing  tides. 

8  See  illustration  of  a  small  harbor  on  p,  II, 


Elevations  over  1000  Feet 
Elevations  500  to  1000  Feet 
Elevations  0  to  500  Feet 

Depths  0  to  50  Fathoms 
Depths  50  to  100  Fathoms 
Depths  100  to  1000  Fathom 
Depths  over  1000  Fathoms 

i I 


n 


Longitude      8        West        from        6      Greenwich 


4    Longitude     East     6    from      Greenwich   8 


THE   GEOGRAPHY   OF   ENGLAND  5 

this  true  of  the  southern  and  eastern  coasts,  although  even  on  the 
more  rugged  western  seaboard  the  deep  and  broad  mouths  of  the 
Severn  and  the  Mersey  make  possible  such  fine  harbors  as  those 
of  Bristol  and  Liverpool. 

The  rivers  not  only  form  harbors  at  their  mouths  but  give 
access  by  water  far  into  the  interior  of  the  country.  At  least  they 
did  so  in  earlier  times  when  vessels  were  small.  Of  several  of 
them  the  lower  courses  are  navigable  even  by  the  larger  vessels 
of  the  present  day.  The  Thames,  the  Severn,  and  the  Trent  are 
long  rivers  draining  the  very  center  of  the  country.  With  their 
tributaries  and  with  the  smaller  rivers,  they  make  a  complete  net- 
work of  water  courses.  This  abundance  of  streams  has  been  used 
in  modern  times  to  feed  a  canal  system  intersecting  the  country  in 
all  directions.  The  more  rapid  streams  also  provide  water  power. 

3.  Surface. — The  cliffs  which  line  so  much  of  the  coast  give 
a  false  impression  of  the  land  that  lies  behind  them.  Much  the 
greater  part  of  England  is  a  level  or  but  slightly  hilly  country. 
It  may  be  divided,  as  far  as  its  surface  is  concerned,  into  three 
regions,  —  the  southeast,  the  center,  and  the  north  and  west. 
The  first  of  these,  covering  almost  two  thirds  of  England,  is  undu- 
lating though  intersected  by  several  ranges  of  soft  rounded  chalk 
hills  about  five  hundred  or  six  hundred  feet  high.  This  was  the 
earliest  part  of  Britain  to  be  inhabited  by  man,  and  until  the  last 
two  centuries  continued  to  be  by  far  the  most  populous,  wealthy, 
and  influential.  The  level  and  slightly  rolling  lands  which  make 
up  the  greater  part  of  it  are  fertile  and  in  the  main  devoted  to 
agriculture.  Its  open,  treeless  hills,  downs  or  wolds,  covered  with 
soft,  springy  turf,  are  generally  utilized  for  sheep  pasture. 

If  a  traveler  passes  from  this  region  of  smooth  surfaces,  gentle 
slopes,  and  moderate  ridges  northward  or  westward,  he  descends 
into  the  midlands  or  "  great  central  plain "  of  England.  This 
plain  extends  from  the  Bristol  Channel  northward  to  Liverpool 
and  northeastward  through  the  vale  of  York  to  the  coast  at  Durham, 
broken  only  here  and  there  by  a  few  groups  of  rugged  hills.  In 


6  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

early  times  it  was  thinly  populated  and  backward  compared  with 
the  region  already  described.  It  is  now,  except  the  region  sur- 
rounding London,  the  richest,  most  active,  and  vastly  the  most 
populous  part  of  England.  Around  its  edges  lie  the  coal  fields ; 
in  it  are  the  great  manufacturing  towns ;  it  includes  Liverpool 
and  other  great  seaports,  and  contains  stretches  of  country 
famous  for  their  grazing  and  dairy  products.  Its  rivers  have 
been  connected  by  canals;  it  is  traversed  in  all  directions  by 
railroads  and  tunneled  by  mines;  and  in  many  parts  its  large 
towns  almost  touch  one  another.  A  district  lying  west  of  Bir- 
mingham in  this  region  is  known  as  the  "  black  country."  It  lies 
upon  a  coal  field,  and  is  dotted  with  iron  furnaces  and  manu- 
facturing establishments,  overspread  with  cinder  heaps,  blackened 
by  smoke,  and  almost  stripped  of  its  vegetation  by  the  fumes  and 
soot.  It  is  one  great  workshop,  where  labor  goes  on  day  and 
night,  above  ground  and  below.  Other  sections  are  devoted  to 
equally  active  but  less  smoky  industries,  and  not  far  away  rich 
dairying  districts  form  a  peaceful  contrast  to  the  manufacturing 
towns. 

Beyond  this  central  plain  rise  the  mountainous  districts,  —  the 
high  moors  of  Somerset,  Devon,  and  Cornwall  in  the  southwest ; 
Wales  in  the  west ;  the  Lake  District  in  the  northwest ;  and  the 
Pennine  Chain,  rising  from  the  midlands  and  extending  north 
ii}to  Scotland.  The  population  of  the  moors  and  mountain  val- 
leys is  necessarily  sparse  and  their  industries  are  simple.  But  on 
the  edge  of  the  mountain  ranges  where  they  drop  to  the  plain  or 
the  shore,  the  greater  number  of  the  mines  of  tin,  copper,  and 
lead  lie,  and  here  there  are  several  large  cities  and  a  thicker 
population. 

4.  Climate. — The  aspect  of  England  compared  with  the  con- 
tinental countries  is  remarkably  green.  It  is  made  so  by  the 
rich  growth  of  grass  and  other  herbage,  and  by  the  verdure  and 
undergrowth  of  the  woods.  This  luxuriance  of  growth  is  due  to 
two  causes,  —  the  frequent  rains  and  fogs  and  the  mild  climate. 


English  Verdure,  Aldenham  Park,  Hertfordshire 


THE   GEOGRAPHY   OF  ENGLAND  7 

There  is  often  a  superabundance  of  wet  weather,  especially  in 
the  west ;  a  drought  is  very  unusual.  The  weather  is  seldom  very 
hot  in  summer  or  very  cold  in  winter,  although  England  is  in  the 
same  latitude  as  Labrador  in  America  and  as  central  Russia  on 
the  continent  of  Europe.  Plowing  can  be  done  in  much  of  Eng- 
land as  early  as  February  and  as  late  as  November.  These  two 
conditions,  the  large  rainfall  and  the  mild  and  equable  climate, 
are  due  to  the  position  of  the  British  Isles.  They  lie  in  the  path 
of  a  current  of  southwest  winds  which  blow  more  than  half  the 
days  of  the  year.  These  winds  give  the  surface  waters  of  the 
ocean  a  set  toward  the  northeast,  and  bring  the  warmer  waters 
of  southern  latitudes  to  the  western  and  southern  shores  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  southwest  winds  also  carry  this 
warmth  and  the  moisture  of  the  ocean  far  inland,  moderating 
the  cold  of  winter  and  causing  frequent  rains  and  fogs.1 

The  reputation  of  England  as  a  "  foggy  isle  "  is,  however,  partly 
due  to  the  peculiar  climate  of  London,  which  is  situated  in  the 
valley  of  the  Thames  and  particularly  subject  to  fogs.  Foreigners 
who  spend  most  of  their  time  there  get  a  false  idea  of  the  whole 
country.  The  downs  and  uplands  are  often  bathed  in  clear  sun- 
shine and  blown  over  by  crisp  breezes  while  the  river  valleys  are 
covered  with  a  mantle  of  fog.  On  the  moors  and  mountains  the 
weather  is  often  severe,  notwithstanding  the  moderating  influences 
just  mentioned;  and  all  over  the  island  there  are  occasional 
though  seldom  prolonged  periods  of  snow  and  freezing  in  winter. 
The  weather  is  changeable  from  day  to  day,  and  the  coasts  are 
liable  to  sudden  and  violent  storms. 

5.  Forests  and  Swamps.  —  In  primeval  times  a  large  part  of 
the  island  was  covered  with  thick  forests.  They  stretched  dark 
and  impenetrable  over  much  of  the  great  central  plain  ;  and  even 

1  The  warmer  waters  which  bathe  the  shores  of  the  British  Isles  are 
sometimes  described  as  an  extension  of  the  Gulf  Stream ;  but  this  is  a 
mistake.  The  Gulf  Stream  disappears  by  the  time  it  reaches  the  middle 
of  the  Atlantic. 


8 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


in  the  more  open  eastern  rolling  country  many  of  the  upland 
regions  and  most  of  the  river  valleys  were  wooded.  Whole  sec- 
tions of  the  country  were  separated  from  the  rest  by  these  forests. 
The  largest  forest  in  England  covered  the  district  known  as  the 
Weald,  and  stretched  from  Kent  almost  one  third  of  the  way 
across  the  island  to  the  westward.  The  word  "  Kent,"  as  well  as 
the  syllable  "  Win  "  in  Winchester,  is  a  Celtic  word  meaning  an 
opening  in  the  forest.  Sherwood,  where  Robin  Hood  and  his 
merry  men  hunted  the  deer ;  Arden,  where  Rosalind  walked  ;  and 

many  other  forests  of  later 
times  were  only  surviving 
fragments  of  these  wild, 
primitive  woodlands. 

Great  swamps  filled  the 
lower  courses  of  many  of 
the  rivers.  The  "Fens" 
formed  a  broad,  marshy 
expanse  of  several  hundred 
square  miles  in  the  east 
of  England.  They  were 
scarcely  above  the  level  of 

the  sea,  and  formed  a  wilderness  practically  impassable  and  unin- 
habitable, except  here  and  there  where  low  hills  of  gravelly  soil 
rose  above  the  water.  This  region  and  several  similar  morasses 
were  even  wilder  and  more  impenetrable  than  the  forests. 

Thus  in  early  times  but  a  small  part  of  the  land  was  open  to 
habitation.  Strips  along  the  seacoast,  steep  hillsides  bordering  the 
river  courses,  bare  moors  and  hilltops,  occasional  open  stretches 
of  the  rolling  country,  formed  the  only  dwelling  places  for  early 
men.  Even  these  open  districts  were  divided  from  one  another, 
hemmed  in  and  bounded  by  the  vast  forests  and  swamps.  The 
existence  of  the  widespreading  forests  and  fens  exercised  a  deep 
influence  on  the  early  history  of  the  country,  and  affected  it 
strongly  even  in  later  times.  The  clearing  and  draining  of  the 


An  Old  Oak  still  standing  in  Sherwood 
Forest 


THE   GEOGRAPHY   OF  ENGLAND 


Forests  and  Swamps  of  Early  England 


10  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

forest  and  swamp  land  for  human  occupation  was  the  gradual 
work  of  civilization  through  many  long  centuries.  Roman  engi- 
neers and  soldiers,  industrious  monks  of  the  middle  ages,  villein 
farmers  and  enterprising  landowners  of  successive  races  contrib- 
uted their  share  to  its  accomplishment,  and  it  has  only  been 
completed  within  the  last  two  hundred  years. 

6.  Natural  Products. — There  is  scarcely  one  of  the  familiar 
mineral  substances  which  is  not  found  in  greater  or  less  quantities 
in  England,  and  most  of  them  are  worked  to  some  extent.  Tin 
is  the  characteristic  product  of  Cornwall  in  the  southwest,  and  has 
always  attracted  attention,  being  a  comparatively  rare  metal.  It 
was  highly  valued  in  early  ages.  Mixed  with  copper  it  forms 
bronze,  a  metal  less  difficult  to  work  and  yet  capable  of  taking  a 
better  edge  than  either  the  copper  or  the  tin  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed, and  therefore  very  useful  before  men  had  learned  to  work 
iron.  Lead  is  found  and  mined  in  the  same  region.  Clay  suffi- 
ciently good  for  brick-making  is  abundant,  and  finer  clay,  suitable 
for  pottery,  exists  in  several  localities,  especially  in  that  part  of 
the  central  plain  which  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  "Potteries." 

The  most  important  mineral  products  of  England  in  modern 
times  are,  however,  her  iron  and  coal.  Iron  ore  exists  plentifully 
and  has  been  worked  wherever  fuel  was  found  near  by.  Wood 
or  charcoal  was  the  earliest  form  of  fuel  used  for  this  and  for  all 
other  purposes  for  which  fuel  was  needed.  It  was  abundant  and 
cheap.  In  time,  however,  wood  became  scarce,  cities  grew  larger, 
needing  a  more  concentrated  fuel ;  the  process  of  smelting  iron 
by  means  of  coal  was  discovered  and  made  ever-increasing 
demands;  and  steam  power  was  adopted  for  many  uses.  Coal 
therefore  became  more  and  more  important,  till  it  has  come  to 
be  the  basis  of  the  prosperity,  if  not  of  the  very  existence,  of 
England's  teeming  population. 

The  bare  uplands  and  hills  are  especially  suited  to  sheep  rais- 
ing, and  England  has  therefore  always  been  famous  for  its  sheep 
and  wool.  The  lower  pasture  grounds,  with  their  grass  kept 


THE   GEOGRAPHY   OF   ENGLAND  n 

green  by  the  frequent  rains,  are  equally  well  suited  to  the  graz- 
ing of  cattle.  All  the  familiar  grains  can  be  raised  except  Indian 
corn,  for  which  the  climate  is  too  cool.  Nor  is  it  warm  enough 
for  grapes,  tomatoes,  and  some  other  fruits  and  vegetables  of 
temperate  but  sunnier  climates.  These  can  only  be  ripened 
along  the  southwestern  coast.  On  the  other  hand,  the  east  of 
England  is  particularly  suited  to  wheat. 

Fish  are  abundant  off  the  coasts,  especially  in  the  North  Sea, 
and  fishing  villages  have  been  scattered  along  the  shores  through  all 
periods  of  English  history.  The  nucleus  of  many  a  large  modern 
town  is  to  be  found  in  a  little  fishing  settlement  of  earlier  times. 


Staithes  Harbor,  Yorkshire :  a  Typical  Fishing  Village  on  the  Coast 

General  Reading.  —  MILL,  H.  R.,  International  Geography,  chap.  xii.  This 
is  the  best  general  description  of  the  British  Isles.  MACKINDER,  H.  S., 
Britain  and  the  British  Seas,  chaps,  i,  ii,  xi,  xix.  These  chapters  on. 
various  physical  features  are  much  less  technical  and  difficult  to  understand 
than  the  remainder  of  this  book.  The  influence  of  the  geography  of  the 
country  on  the  settlements  and  conquests  is  brought  out  in  many  places  in 
GREEN,  J.  R.,  The  Making  of  England,  and  in  GEORGE,  H.  B.,  The  Relations 
of  Geography  and  History,  chap.  x.  The  influence  of  the  resources  of  the 
country  on  its  prosperity  is  discussed  in  CUNNINGHAM  and  MCARTHUR, 
Outlines  of  English  Industrial  History,  chap.  ii.  There  is  much  picturesque 
description  of  the  Fens  in  KINGSLEY,  Hereward.  LONGMANS'  Atlas  gives 
several  good  maps  of  England,  showing  its  physical  features. 


CHAPTER   II 


PREHISTORIC  AND  CELTIC  BRITAIN 

7.  Prehistoric  Races.  —  Mankind  lived  in  Britain  for  unnum- 
bered centuries  before  any  contemporary  written  records  were 
made.     In  the  chalk  districts,  tunnels  and  pits  are  still  traceable 
where  men  of  a  race  earlier  than  any  of  which  we  have  recorded 
history  searched  for  clear  lumps  of  flint  out 
of  which  to  make  arrowheads  and  other 
implements.      In  one  of  these  tunnels  a 
pick  made  of  a  deer's  horn  was  recently 
found.     The  imprint  of  the  fingers  of  the 
man  who  had  laid  it  down,  probably  thou- 
sands of  years  ago,  was  still  visible  on  the 
chalk-covered  handle,  and  pick  marks  could 
be  distinguished  on  the  walls.     Vast  num- 
bers of  such  remains  have  been  found,  as 
well  as  ornaments,  weapons,  bones  of  ani- 
Miner's  Pick,  made  of  a   mals  broken  or  marked  by  man,  and  por- 
Deer's  Antler,  found  in    tions  of  human  skeletons.     Burial  mounds, 
the  Prehistoric  Chalk-   foundations  of  houses,  and  groups  of  stand- 
Workings  at  Grimes'    .       stones  remain  tQ          g  ^  existence  of 

Graves,  Suffolk  _  r 

these  early  races.    Even  the  modern  names 

of  some  rivers  and  of  certain  localities  come  down  from  the 
languages  of  men  of  whom  we  have  no  other  record. 

But  knowledge  obtained  from  such  remains  is  slight,  uncertain, 
and  vague.  Its  study  is  a  part  of  archaeology  rather  than  of  his- 
tory, and  the  men  of  whom  only  such  knowledge  is  preserved  are 
therefore  described  as  prehistoric  races.  We  scarcely  know  more 

12 


PREHISTORIC  AND   CELTIC   BRITAIN  13 

than  that  several  such  races  existed  successively  in  England  ;  that 
they  occupied  principally  the  hilly  regions,  where  they  were  more 
secure  from  wild  beasts  and  where  the  soil,  if  poorer,  was  easier 
to  cultivate ;  and  that  they  used  only  stone  and  bronze  weapons 
and  implements. 

It  is  customary  to  describe  these  prehistoric  men  as  of  three 
races.  First  were  the  paleolithic  men,  or  men  of  the  rough-stone 
age,  who  used  rude  weapons,  ornaments,  and  implements  of  stone 
and  bone.  They  probably  lived  in  caves  and  depended  for  their 
subsistence  on  the  wild  beasts  they  captured  and  the  vegetable 
products  they  found  growing  wild.  Next  were  the  neolithic  men, 
or  men  of  the  polished-stone  age,  who  used  the  well-shaped 


Stonehenge,  on  Salisbury  Plain 

stone,  bone,  and  horn  implements  that  are  frequently  found,  and 
probably  lived  in  some  kind  of  artificial  buildings,  raised  crops, 
kept  domestic  animals,  knew  how  to  weave  clqth  and  to  make 
pottery,  and  perhaps  traded  with  other  peoples.  They  built  and 
deposited  their  dead  in  long  burial  mounds  such  as  those 
whose  remains  still  exist.  They  were  small  men,  perhaps  of  the 
same  race  as  is  now  represented  by  the  Basques  of  Spain.  Later 
than  these  came  a  race  who  knew  the  use  of  bronze,  who  buried 
their  dead  in  small,  round  burial  mounds,  and  who  were  probably 
the  builders  of  Stonehenge,  Kit's  Coty  House,  and  the  other 
mysterious  groups  of  standing  stones  which  are  found  scattered 
through  England.  These  are  known  as  men  of  the  bronze  age, 
and  may  have  been  the  earliest  immigrants  of  the  race  dominant 
in  Britain  when  our  written  knowledge  of  it  begins. 


A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 


8.  Caesar's  Invasion  and  Description  of  Britain,  55-54  B.C.  — 

During  the  fourth,  third,  and  second  centuries  before  Christ, 
occasional  travelers  or  merchants  from  the  civilized  countries 
around  the  Mediterranean  Sea  are  said  to  have  brought  home 
some  knowledge  of  the  island  of  Britain  and  its  people,  but  their 
accounts  are  now  lost  or  give  but  little  information.  With  the 
middle  of  the  century  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  however,  our 
written  history  of  Britain  really  begins.  Just  at  this  time  Julius 
Caesar  was  the  Roman  governor  of  Gaul,  the  country  known  in 

modern  times  as  France. 
He  seems  to  have  come 
to  the  conclusion  either 
that  the  Britons  were  giv- 
ing aid  to  his  restless  sub- 
jects in  Gaul,  or  that  their 
conquest  would  carry  still 
higher  his  fame  and  for- 
tune. He  therefore  deter- 
mined to  invade  the  island. 
Late  in  the  summer  of 
the  year  55  B.C.,  taking 
with  him  two  legions, 
he  made  an  attack  on  the  southeast  coast  of  Britain,  and  after 
active  fighting  with  the  natives  secured  a  camping  place  and  began 
foraging.  As  the  autumn  was  far  advanced,  however,  he  soon 
withdrew  and  began  arrangements  for  a  more  vigorous  campaign 
the  next  year. 

By  the  succeeding  July  he  had  prepared  a  force  of  five  legions, 
that  is,  some  twenty  thousand  footmen  and  two  thousand  cavalry, 
with  full  equipment,  and  these  were  embarked  and  safely  landed 
on  the  British  coast  near  the  modern  town  of  Deal.  At  first  no 
resistance  was  made  by  the  Britons,  but  as  the  Romans  advanced 
inland  their  progress  was  contested  daily,  and  involved  constant 
skirmishing.  There  was  at  that  time  a  confederacy  of  the  British 


Kit's  Coty  House :  a  Prehistoric  Group  of 
Standing  Stones  in  Kent 


PREHISTORIC  AND   CELTIC  BRITAIN  15 


The  Celtic  Tribes  of  Britain 


16  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

tribes  under  one  of  their  chieftains,  whose  fortified  camp  or  village 
was  at  Verulamium,  just  north  of  London,  near  the  modem  St. 
Albans.  The  Romans  succeeded  in  breaking  up  this  confeder- 
ation and  eventually  in  obtaining  the  submission  of  the  chief 
leaders  of  the  Britons.  By  this  time  apparently  Caesar  had  dis- 
covered that  it  would  be  impossible  completely  to  subjugate  the 
country.  He  therefore  merely  took  hostages  and  imposed  a 
small  tribute  on  the  various  British  tribes  through  whose  districts 
he  had  passed,  then  hastened  to  his  ships  and  took  his  army  back 
to  Gaul.  He  had  been  in  Britain  altogether  about  three  months. 
After  Caesar's  departure  the  Britons  seldom  sent  the  tribute  and 
no  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  its  payment.  As  a  later  Roman 
historian  remarks,  Caesar  discovered  Britain  for  his  countrymen, 
he  did  not  gain  it  for  them.  Nevertheless  his  campaigns  pre- 
vented any  possible  alliance  on  the  part  of  the  Britons  with  the 
Gauls,  and  the  account  which  he  wrote  of  them  made  the  Romans 
familiar  with  the  distant  island.  They  give  us  also  our  real  start- 
ing point  for  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  England. 

9.  The  Celtic  Race. — The  greater  part  of  the  population  of 
Britain  at  the  time  of  Caesar's  military  explorations  seems  to  have 
belonged  to  the  widespread  Celtic  race,  the  still  earlier  inhabitants 
having  been  absorbed  or  destroyed  by  them.  There  were,  how- 
ever, several  branches  of  the  Celtic  inhabitants,  —  the  Brythons  or 
Britons  proper,  who  occupied  the  southeastern  part  of  the  island  ; 
the  Goidels  or  Gaels,  who  occupied  the  districts  farther  north  and 
west ;  and  perhaps  the  Picts  and  Caledonians  in  the  far  north.  The 
first  of  these,  those  nearest  the  continent,  were  the  most  cultured. 
They  were  quite  similar  to  the  Gauls  in  appearance,  customs,  and 
language.  It  was  with  them  only  that  Caesar  came  in  contact,  and 
of  them  only  that  we  have  any  full  knowledge.  It  was  they  also 
who  became  a  permanent  element  in  the  population  of  England 
and  Wales,  the  Gaels  being  represented  in  modern  times  by  the 
Irish  and  the  western  Highlanders  of  Scotland,  and  the  Picts 
surviving  probably  in  the  eastern  and  northern  Highlands. 


PREHISTORIC  AND   CELTIC   BRITAIN  17 

10.  Customs  of  the  Britons.  — The  Britons  were  quite  numer- 
ous, forming  a  thick  population  in  the  habitable  parts  of  the 
country.  They  lived  in  small  villages  or  hamlets,  obtaining  their 
subsistence  by  raising  cows,  swine,  sheep,  and  goats,  and  by  cul- 
tivating the  soil.  They  raised  wheat,  oats,  and  barley.  They 
had  large  flocks  of  sheep  and  many  small  horned  cattle,  like  the 
modern  Kerry  cows,  and  made  much  use  of  milk  and  cheese. 
Their  houses  were  built  like  wigwams,  with  conical  re  jfs  thatched 
with  branches,  ferns,  or  straw. 

They  had  advanced  beyond  barbarism  in  many  lines.  They  wove 
linen  and  woolen  cloth  in  bright  stripes  and  squares  like  Scotch 
plaid,  and  wore  as  ornaments  gold,  silver,  and  beaded  buckles, 
necklaces,  bracelets,  and  torques  or 
collars.  The  mining  and  export  of 
tin  were  carried  on  in  the  southwest, 
and  iron  ore  was  smelted  in  several 
parts  of  the  country  and  worked  into 
implements  and  weapons.  Pottery  of  Coin  of  Cunobeline,  Chief  of 
a  very  rude  sort  was  made.  Coins  of  the  Catuvellauni,  Trino- 

u     .,  bantes,  and    Iceni,    about 

gold,  silver,  and  copper  were  used  to  a 

small  extent,  especially  after  Caesar's 

invasion,  when  there  came  to  be  more  commercial  intercourse  with 
the  continent.  A  large  number  of  coins  have  been  found  with  the 
name  of  Cunobeline,  a  prince  with  dominions  in  the  eastern  part  of 
the  country,  who  is  familiar  in  literature  as  Shakespeare's  Cymbeline. 

The  Britons  were  divided  into  a  large  number  of  tribes  or  clans, 
each  occupying  its  own  region  and  each  under  a  petty  chief  or 
king.  No  union  existed  among  them,  except  when  a  chieftain 
conquered  and  subjected  some  surrounding  tribes  or  when  a  tem- 
porary alliance  was  made  to  resist  an  invasion.  Such  alliances 
soon  broke  up  again  and  the  tribes  fell  into  their  old  condition 
of  disunion. 

Wars  among  the  British  tribes  were  frequent,  and  permanent 
fortifications  were  kept  up.  Elevated  and  easily  defensible  spots 


i8 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


were  chosen,  earthworks  thrown  up,  always  in  a  circular  form, 
and  palisades  placed  upon  these.  Such  a  fortification  was  called 
a  dun,  and  London  and  the  names  of  many  other  places  still  pre- 
serve that  termination  in  varying  forms.  The  Roman  invaders 
were  much  struck  with  the  skill  of  the  British  in  the  use  of  their 
war  chariots.  These  were  low,  two-wheeled  carts  drawn  by  a 
pair  of  their  small  horses  or  ponies,  the  hubs  of  the  wheels  being 
provided  with  short,  straight,  scythe-shaped  blades  extending  out 
on  both  sides.  Two  men  rode  in  each  with  a  driver.  The  char- 
iots were  driven  rapidly  up  and  down  the  enemy's  lines,  striving 
to  throw  them  into  confusion  or  to  find  a  place  of  entrance 


A  so-called  "  Celtic  Bridge  "  on  Dartmoor 

among  them.  If  such  a  breach  was  found,  the  fighting  men 
leaped  out  and  fought  on  foot,  while  the  chariots  were  driven  out, 
and  retired  to  a  distance,  ready  to  take  the  warriors  in  again  if 
necessary.  Swords,  short  knives,  bows  and  arrows,  and  spears 
were  also  used  in  fighting. 

The  Britons  had  many  gods  and  were  extremely  superstitious, 
watching  for  signs  and  omens,  dreading  fairies  and  elves,  and 
practicing  curious  rites  and  ceremonies.  Every  neighborhood 
had  its  sacred  spring,  rock,  tree  or  other  place  of  supernatural 
significance.  Closely  connected  with  religion  was  the  existence 
of  the  class  of  Druids.  This  was  a  body  or  order  of  men  into 
which  admission  was  gained  only  by  a  long  course  of  preparation, 


PREHISTORIC  AND   CELTIC   BRITAIN  19 

consisting  principally  of  committing  to  memory  great  bodies  of 
verse,  in  which  custom,  law,  morals,  and  religion  were  embodied. 
The  Druids,  therefore,  were  consulted  on  all  important  questions 
of  law  or  policy.  They  were  free  from  taxation  and  military  serv- 
ice, and  great  deference  was  paid  to  their  opinions  and  advice. 
They  had  charge  of  all  sacrifices,  and  in  serious  cases  put  human 
beings  to  death  to  satisfy  the  anger  of  the  gods.  The  oak  tree  and 
the  mistletoe,  which  sometimes  grows  upon  it,  were  considered  by 
them  as  especially  sacred  and  as  having  mystic  powers  of  healing. 

General  Reading.  —  WRIGHT,  The  Celt,  the  Roman,  and  the  Saxon. 
WINDLE,  Life  in  Early  Britain.  Both  of  these  books  refer  to  the 
periods  of  the  next  three  chapters  also.  RHYS,  J.,  Celtic  Britain,  is  another 
small  book  on  this  period.  Large  works  are,  ELTON,  C.,  Origins  of  English 
History,  and  GUEST,  E.,  Origines  Celtuce. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  C/ESAR  himself  describes  his  invasion  of 
Britain  in  his  Commentaries,  Book  IV,  chaps,  xx-xxxviii ;  Book  V,  chaps, 
vii-xxiii  (translated  in  Bohn's  Library).  Short  extracts  from  Caesar  and 
several  other  ancient  writers,  including  an  interesting  description  of  the 
tin  mines  by  Diodorus  Siculus,  are  given  in  LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  11-17; 
from  Caesar  and  Tacitus  in  COLBY,  Selections  from  the  Sources,  Nos.  i  and  2; 
and  from  Tacitus  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book,  No.  i. 

Special  Topics.  —  In  addition  to  the  references  given  above,  (i)  a  full 
discussion  of  the  early  races  will  be  found  in  RIPLEY,  Races  of  Europe, 
chap,  xii ;  (2)  a  short  description  of  the  Druids  in  TRAILL,  Social  England, 
Vol.  I,  chap,  i,  pp.  30-35  ;  (3)  of  the  social  life  of  the  Britons,  ibid.,  pp.  102- 
114;  and  (4)  of  their  military  system  and  other  customs,  ibid.,  pp.  44-52. 
(These  page  numbers  and  those  used  throughout  this  book  refer  to  the 
ordinary  edition  of  Traill ;  the  illustrated  edition  has  much  new  and  good 
material  on  these  early  periods  in  addition  to  the  illustrations.  The  chap- 
ters and  sections  are  the  same  in  the  two  editions,  and  although  the  pages 
are  different,  the  paragraphs  devoted  to  the  same  subjects  can  readily  be 
found.)  (5)  The  Roman  knowledge  of  the  geography  of  Britain  is  given  in 
TACITUS,  Agricola,  chaps,  x-xiii,  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book,  No.  i. 


CHAPTER   III 
ROMAN  BRITAIN 

1 1 .  The  Roman  Conquest.  —  During  the  century  succeeding 
Caesar's  invasion  the  Britons  were  advancing  slowly  in  civilization 
and  becoming  more  wealthy  by  trade  with  the  continent,  but  they 
did  not  succeed  in  forming  any  better  national  union.  As  a  result 
of  the  frequent  internal  dissensions,  one  exiled  British  chieftain  after 
another  appealed  to  the  Romans  for  assistance.  Opportunity  was 
thus  added  to  the  ever-present  inclination  of  the  Romans  to  extend 
their  conquests.  Various  motives  of  policy,  however,  delayed  such 
an  attack  and  the  Britons  retained  their  barbarian  freedom. 

The  emperor  Claudius  finally  determined  to  enter  upon  the 
conquest  of  Britain.  He  organized  an  army  of  four  legions  and 
placed  it  under  an  experienced  general.  In  the  summer  of 
A.D.  43  the  army  set  sail  and  landed  in  Britain.  The  emperor 
joined  them  shortly  afterwards,  and  a  series  of  small  battles  was 
fought  in  the  country  along  the  river  Thames  till  the  intrenched 
camp  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  British  chieftains  at  Camulo- 
dunum,  the  modern  Colchester,  was  captured.  This  broke  the 
resistance  of  the  native  tribes  of  the  southeast.  Britain  was  im- 
mediately organized  as  a  Roman  province,  with  a  governor  and 
a  regularly  established  military  force  and  civil  administration. 
A  succession  of  governors,  partly  by  wars  and  partly  by  friendly 
alliances,  gradually  extended  the  Roman  power  and  government 
all  the  way  to  the  coast  of  Wales  and  far  up  toward  the  Highlands 
of  Scotland.  This  conquest  was  completed  by  A.D.  82. 

Forty  years  of  warfare  naturally  included  a  number  of  hard  con- 
tests. The  Britons  were  not  easily  conquered.  Caractacus,  who 


ROMAN   BRITAIN  21 

had  led  the  first  resistance,  escaped  the  pursuit  of  the  Romans  by 
taking  refuge  with  one  unconquered  tribe  after  another.  These 
he  incited  successively  to  resistance.  After  nine  years  of  struggle 
he  was  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the  Roman  governor  and  sent 
with  his  wife  and  daughter  to  be  shown  in  a  triumphal  spectacle 
at  Rome.  The  nobility  of  his  bearing  and  the  renown  of  his 
heroism  extorted  the  admiration  of  the  emperor  Claudius  and 
he  was  allowed  to  remain  with  his  family  in  practical  freedom 
at  Rome. 

After  the  capture  of  Caractacus  the  island  of  Mona  remained 
for  twenty  years  a  refuge  for  unconquered  natives  and  a  gathering 
place  for  the  Druids,  who  exerted  their  influence  to  prolong  the 
national  resistance.  All  the  available  troops,  therefore,  in  the 
year  A.D.  61,  were  gathered  together,  taken  by  the  governor  to 
the  nearest  point  on  the  coast,  and  ferried  across  in  flat-bottomed 
boats.  The  Roman  historian  Tacitus  gives  a  vivid  account  of 
the  attack,  describing  the  native  warriors,  the  wild  British  women, 
the  praying  Druids,  and  the  superstitious  dread  of  the  Romans. 
But  the  natives  were  finally  attacked  and  conquered,  the  sacred 
groves  cut  down,  and  a  garrison  established  there.1 

There  were  several  insurrections  of  the  half-subjugated  Britons. 
The  most  serious  of  these  was  that  of  the  Iceni  under  their  queen, 
Boadicea,2  in  the  year  A.D.  61.  The  Iceni,  who  occupied  the  dis- 
trict between  the  Fen  country  and  the  east  coast,  were  one  of  those 
tribes  which  had  entered  willingly  into  a  dependent  alliance  with 
the  Romans.  On  the  death  of  their  king,  however,  the  Roman 
officials  treated  his  dominions  as  conquered  and  seized  his  prop- 
erty. His  widow  resisted.  The  Roman  governor  then  scourged 
her  in  public,  sold  other  members  of  the  family  into  slavery,  and 
subjected  her  daughters  to  insult.  The  pressure  of  Roman  taxa- 
tion, restrictions  on  their  accustomed  freedom,  and  the  abuses  of 

1  Annales,  Book  XIV,  chap.  xxx.     (Translated  in  Bonn's  Library.) 

2  Her  name  should  properly  be   spelled  Boudicca,  but  Boadicea  has 
long  been  the  most  familiar  form. 


22  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

officials  had  already  roused  widespread  discontent,  and  now  the 
Iceni  rose  in  wild  revolt  and  some  of  the  neighboring  tribes  joined 
them.  The  bulk  of  the  Roman  army  was  away  on  the  frontier,  and 
the  scattered  detachments  of  troops  which  had  been  left  behind 
were  destroyed  by  the  natives  in  the  first  days  of  the  rising.  The 
Ninth  Legion  marched  against  them,  but  was  defeated,  and  the 
three  largest  towns  of  the  province,  occupied  by  Romans  and 
peaceful  Britons,  were  ravaged 'and  their  population  massacred. 
But  it  was  only  a  short  time  till  the  governor  had  reorganized  his 
forces,  defeated  the  rebellious  natives  in  a  great  battle,  and  pun- 
ished all  those  who  had  been  responsible  for  the  uprising.  Boadi- 
cea  killed  herself  by  taking  poison. 

12.  Romanizing  of  the  Province.  —  The  work  of  pacification 
and  organization,  as  was  usual  in  Roman  provinces,  followed  close 
upon  the  conquest.  Much  of  this  was  due  to  the  great  Roman 
governor  Julius  Agricola.  During  his  administration,  which  ex- 
tended over  seven  years,  from  78  to  85  A.D.,  he  put  down  resist- 
ance wherever  it  showed  itself,  but  exercised  great  kindness  when 
submission  had  once  been  made.  He  established  permanent  mil- 
itary garrisons  in  skillfully  chosen  localities,  selected  his  lower 
officials  with  great  care,  and  forced  them  to  deal  justly  with  the 
people.  He  encouraged  the  use  of  the  Latin  language,  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Roman  dress,  the  building  of  temples,  public  baths 
and  forums,  and  private  dwelling  houses,  and  the  adoption  by  the 
people  of  the  civilized  Roman  ways.  When  the  province  was 
reduced  to  complete  order  he  made  a  successful  campaign  far  up 
into  Caledonia  to  break  the  power  of  the  northern  tribes,  which 
had  from  those  mountainous  regions  repeatedly  invaded  the  more 
civilized  part  of  the  island. 

Thus  within  little  more  than  a  generation  Britain  had  been 
brought  completely  under  Roman  government  and  had  received 
the  usual  provincial  organization  for  military,  financial,  political, 
and  other  purposes.  A  large  number  of  new  inhabitants  had 
come  to  settle  within  it,  and  the  old  Celtic  inhabitants  had  largely 


ROMAN   BRITAIN  23 

adopted  the  customs  of  their  rulers.  For  more  than  three 
hundred  years  Britain  was  a  comparatively  peaceful  and  orderly 
Roman  province,  though  the  outlying  portions  to  the  north  an'd 
west  continued  to  be  troubled  from  time  to  time  with  risings  or 
with  invasions  of  barbarians  from  outside  the  border. 

13.  Growth  of  Roman  Towns  in  Britain.  —  Britain  under  the 
Romans,  during  these  three  centuries,  presented  a  striking  con- 
trast to  its  condition  while  it  had  been  still  occupied  only  by  the 


Remains  of  a  Part  of  the  Wall  of  the  Roman  City  of  Uriconium 

native  Celtic  tribes.  One  of  the  chief  differences  was*  the  prev- 
alence of  city  life.  The  cities  which  grew  up  had  in  many  cases 
a  military  origin.  Three  legions  were  regularly  stationed  in  Britain. 
The  Second,  which  was  known  as  the  "Augustan,"  had  its  head- 
quarters at  Isca,  or  Caerleon,  in  the  south  of  Wales ;  the  Sixth, 
the  "  Victorious,"  at  Eboracum,  the  modern  York ;  the  Twentieth, 
the  "Valiant- victorious,"  at  Deva,  the  modern  Chester.  The 
Ninth,  the  "  Spanish,"  served  in  Britain  during  the  early  period 
of  conquest,  but  disappears  from  the  records,  either  used  up  in  the 
constant  petty  warfare  or  overwhelmed  in  some  calamity  which  has 
not  been  recorded.  Detachments  from  these  legions  were  scattered 
in  numberless  smaller  or  larger  posts  throughout  the  country. 


24  A    SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  Roman  military  garrisons  were  permanent  stations  to  which 
recruits  were  sent  from  time  to  time  from  all  parts  of  the  Empire. 
They  were  thus  gradually  transformed  into  towns  or  cities,  inhab- 
ited, in  addition  to  the  enlisted  soldiers,  by  a  population  engaged 
in  trade  and  handicrafts,  by  officeholders,  and  by  those  soldiers 
who  had  fulfilled  their  term  of  service  and  settled  down  with 
their  families  in  the  neighborhood  to  which  they  had  become 
attached. 

Many  settlers  from  other  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire,  not  only 
those  engaged  in  the  military  and  civil  service  of  the  govern- 
ment, but  merchants,  manufacturers,  shopkeepers,  and  persons 
occupied  in  other  capacities,  came  with  their  families  to  live  in 
Britain,  and  furnished  additional  population  for  the  cities  spread- 
ing around  the  military  camps.  In  this  and  other  ways  grew 
up  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  towns  or  cities  the  location 
of  which  can  be  identified  either  by  records  of  that  time  or  by 
ruined  remains  still  existing.  The  sites  of  some  of  these  are 
occupied  by  modern  cities ;  some  are  now  represented  by  mere 
villages  or  by  a  few  mounds  or  pieces  of  wall  in  the  open  country. 
The  location  of  a  great  many  of  the  Roman  towns  is  shown  by 
the  termination  "caster,"  "cester,"  or  "  Chester"  in  the  modem 
names.  All  these  forms  represent  the  Latin  word  castra,  a  camp, 
and  almost  invariably  show  that  a  military  post  was  established 
there  in  Roman  times.1  Some  others,  as  Lincoln,  have  the  termi- 
nation from  the  Latin  word  colonia.  In  most  of  these  places  and 
in  many  others  remains  of  Roman  buildings  still  exist  which  show 
that  they  were  in  Roman  times  not  merely  military  camps,  as 
might  be  inferred  from  the  names,  but  populous  towns  with  public 
buildings,  temples,  stops,  and  dwelling  houses.  The  walled  por- 
tion of  the  towns  was  small,  but  extensive  suburbs  probably 
surrounded  them. 

1  Instances  of  this  are  Lancaster,  Doncaster,  Ancaster,  Tadcaster,  Bran- 
caster,  Chester,  Chichester,  Cirencester,  Leicester,  Gloucester,  Dorchester, 
Ilchester,  Manchester,  Rochester,  Silchester,  and  many  others. 


ROMAN  BRITAIN 

0  50  100 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


ROMAN    BRITAIN 


14-  Roman  Building. — The  walls  of  these  towns,  as  in  all 
Roman  building,  were  massive,  provided  with  towers,  gateways, 
and  guardrooms.  The  materials  for  building  were  largely  stone 
and  mortar,  the  stones  on  the  outer  surface  being  almost 
invariably  squared  and  carefully  fitted  together.  Along  with  the 
dressed  stones  were  used  a  great  many  bricks  or  tiles  of  burned 
clay,  longer  and  broader,  but  thinner,  than  modern  bricks.  Both 
on  stones  and  bricks  the  mason's  or  brickmaker's  signs  or  initials 
were  often  placed.  Inscribed  tablets  were  also  very  commonly 
used  for  memorials.  From  these  inscriptions  much  of  our  knowl- 
edge of  Roman  Brit- 
ain is  obtained.  The 
materials  used  by  the 
Romans  in  their 
buildings  were  so 
good  that  many  of 
their  structures  still 
exist  after  almost  two 
thousand  years  of 
neglect  and  exposure. 

The  most  famous 
Roman  structure  in 
Britain  was  the  wall 


Roman  Arch  still  standing  in  the  City  of  Lincoln 


built  by  the  emperor  Hadrian  from  sea  to  sea  across  a  narrow 
part  of  the  island,  to  form  a  line  of  defense  against  the  turbulent 
northern  tribes.  It  was  more  than  seventy  miles  long,  extending 
from  the  river  Tyne  just  below  Newcastle  to  the  shore  of  the 
Solway  Firth  on  the  western  coast.  It  was  about  eight  feet  thick 
and  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  high.  Some  eighteen  permanent  walled 
camps  were  distributed  along  its  course,  "  mile-castles  "  served  as 
places  of  defense  for  smaller  bodies  of  troops,  and  small  watch  tur- 
rets were  placed  at  even  more  frequent  intervals.  A  military  road 
ran  along  the  northern  side  of  the  wall,  and  a  line  of  earthworks 
and  a  ditch  were  carried  parallel  to  it.  A  somewhat  similar  line 


26 


A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 


of  defense  was  constructed  at  the  still  narrower  place  between  the 
Firth  and  the  Clyde,  but  was  not  successfully  held,  and  the  region 
between  these  two  walls  was  always  debatable  ground  between  the 
provincials  and  the  barbarians  to  the  north  of  the  province.  The 
Wall  of  Hadrian  was  the  wonder  of  successive  races  of  invaders, 
and  even  to-day  in  its  remains  gives  impressive  testimony  to  the 
power  and  boldness  of  the  Romans. 

15.  Rural  Life. — Scattered  through  Roman  Britain  were  many 
villas  or  country  houses,  whose  remains  show  wealth,  luxury,  and 
refined  tastes  on  the  part  of  the  owners.  These  were  probably 


A  Part  of  the  Roman  Wall 

lords  of  large  estates  which  were  worked  by  slaves  or  dependent 
tenants.  Some  of  these  villas  were  so  large  as  to  have  readily 
accommodated  a  household  of  a  hundred  or  more  persons.  The 
mosaic  or  figured  stone  floors  and  the  frescoed  walls  and  ceilings 
of  these  houses  were  often  ornate  and  beautiful.  Warmth,  so  dear 
to  sun-loving  Italians,  was  obtained  in  the  larger  buildings  by 
laying  the  tiled  floors  over  vaulted  passages,  through  which  warm 
air  was  made  to  pass  from  furnaces.  Remains  are  also  found  of 
villages  in  which  the  native  laboring  population  lived,  using 
Roman  pottery  and  other  such  utensils,  but  apparently  very  poor, 
and  probably  enjoying  but  little  of  Roman  civilization,  except  the 
good  order  of  the  country. 


ROMAN   BRITAIN  27 

16.  Roads. — -The  cities  and  military  camps  were  connected 
by  roads  extending  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  island. 
The  Romans  built  and  kept  up  their  roads  in  all  the  provinces  of 
the  Empire  with  the  greatest  care  and  skill,  and  many  of  those 
constructed  in  Britain  in  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  centuries 
still  serve  as  the  foundations  of  modern  roads,  or  are  visible  as 
tracks  across  uncultivated  downs  and  moors.     The  main  roads 
were  constructed  of  several  layers  of  prepared  stones  and  mortar, 
and  were  intended  primarily  for  military  purposes.     Others  were 
cross  roads  for  more  ordinary  traveling  and  for  trading  uses,  and 
still  others  were  mere  private  roads  or  rural  byways. 

Several  roads  leading  from  the  seaports  on  the  southeast 
coast  united  at  the  city  of  Durovernum,  the  modern  Canterbury, 
from  which  a  broad  road  led  away  over  the  high  ground,  through 
the  modern  city  of  Rochester,  to  the  Thames  opposite  London. 
Here  was  a  bridge  across  the  river.  From  London  four  great 
roads  diverged  like  a  fan.  One  passed  westward  and  south- 
westward  through  the  richest  and  most  populous  district  of 
Roman  Britain ;  the  second  extended  northwestward  into  the 
midlands,  and  thence  to  Wales  and  the  far  north ;  the  third  road 
ran  due  north  to  York  and  on  up  into  Scotland;  the  fourth 
extended  northeastward  to  the  eastern  coast.  Other  main  roads 
extended  across  the  island,  joining  these  and  leading  from  one 
of  the  principal  cities  or  seaports  to  another. 

These  main  highways  were  but  the  principal  threads  of  the  great 
network  of  roads  by  which  all  parts  of  the  province  were  made 
easy  of  access.  Along  them  were  scattered  the  cities,  towns,  and 
villas,  and  a  constant  stream  of  trade  and  travel  must  have  flowed 
in  the  wake  of  the  military  marching  and  transport  for  which  they 
were  primarily  intended. 

17.  Industries.  —  Iron  ore  was  smelted  in  a  number  of  the 
forest  regions  of  the  southeast  and  the  central  plain,  and  lead  was 
mined  in  Cornwall  for  use  in  the  province  and  for  export  to  the 
continent.     Copper,  tin,  silver,  and  gold  were  mined  to  some 


28  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

extent.  Great  quantities  of  pottery  were  made  in  various  dis- 
tricts where  suitable  clay  existed.  The  method  of  manufacture 
of  some  kinds  of  ware  has  become  a  lost  art,  never  rediscovered 
since  Roman  times.  Articles  made  of  glass  are  found  very  widely, 
though  it  is  not  certain  that  they  were  manufactured  in  Britain. 
Indeed,  all  these  articles  were  frequently  imported  into  Britain 
from  Italy  and  from  other  provinces. 

The  Romans  considered  Britain  one  of  the  great  grain-growing 
and  cattle-raising  provinces  of  the  Empire,  and  occasionally  wheat 
made  its  way  from  that  province  all  the  way  to  Rome.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  cherry,  the  walnut,  the  elm,  perhaps  the  beech, 
and  other  trees,  as  well  as  some  new  breeds  of  domestic  animals, 
were  introduced  by  the  Romans.  The  Roman  landowners  intro- 
duced also  certain  methods  of  cultivation,  customary  arrangements 
of  payment  from  their  tenants,  and  divisions  of  the  farming  land 
which  survived  into  far  later  centuries. 

Notwithstanding  this  progress  in  farming,  the  occupations  of 
the  people  of  Britain  which  distinguished  the  Roman  period  from 
earlier  and  later  times  were  manufactures  and  commerce,  not 
agriculture.  The  prevalence  of  trade  is  shown  by  the  great  quan- 
tities of  coined  money  that  existed.  Roman  coins  have  been  found 
in  vast  numbers  now  for  many  centuries.  Some  have  been  lost 
or  melted  down,  but  many  thousands  still  exist  in  public  and 
private  collections.  They  have  frequently  been  found  in  hoards, 
in  earthen  jars  where  their  owners  hid  or  kept  them,  or  in 
purses  that  their  owners  lost.  A  few  years  ago,  during  some 
excavations  at  Silchester,  a  Roman  bath  was  disclosed.  In  the 
opening  of  one  of  the  lead  pipes  a  pile  of  some  two  hundred 
coins  was  found,  and  close  to  it  in  a  corner  of  the  bath  a  human 
skeleton.  It  seems  probable  that  the  man  had  just  hidden  or 
was  just  seeking  the  money  when  death  overtook  him.  Other 
coins  have  been  found  scattered  among  the  ruins  of  houses,  in 
the  streets  or  the  outlying  fields  of  ancient  towns,  and  along  the 
roads.  They  represent  coinage  of  all  the  emperors  from  Augustus 


ROMAN    BRITAIN 


29 


to  the  latest  days  of  the  province.  Mints  existed  at  London, 
Dover,  and  perhaps  other  places,  where  money  was  coined  ;  and 
great  numbers  of  coins  must  have  been  brought  over  from  the 
continent.  The  familiar  figure  of  Britannia  on  modern  English 
coins  is  taken  from  certain  coins  of  the  province  issued  under  the 
emperor  Hadrian. 

18.  Language  and  Religion.  —  It  is  evident  from  what  has 
been  said  that  civilization  was  highly  developed  in  Britain  dur- 
ing the  Roman  period.  The  population  became  very  much  mixed, 
on  account  of  immigration  from  all  parts 
of  the  Empire.  It  is  probable  that  Latin 
became  almost  the  universal  language. 
Thousands  of  inscriptions  have  been  dis- 
covered in  that  language  and  none  in  the 
Celtic  formerly  in  use.  It  is  true  that 
many  of  the  rivers  and  mountains  pre- 
served their  Celtic  or  even  pre-Celtic 
names.  No  doubt  also  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts and  in  the  more  remote  parts  of  the 
country  a  large  part  of  the  original  British  A  Roman  Altar  dedicated 
population  and  even  of  the  descendants  to  Jupiter  by  Aelius 
of  those  early  races  which  preceded  the 
Britons  still  survived  with  their  language 
and  customs  almost  undisturbed  through  the  whole  Roman  period. 

The  same  gods  were  worshiped  here  as  at  Rome,  as  well  as 
some  known  only  to  this  or  other  outlying  parts  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  Burial  inscriptions  and  votive  offerings  reproduce  their 
names.  Temples  and  altars  were  dedicated  to  Jupiter  and  to  most 
of  the  other  Roman  deities,  and  to  various  minor  deities  of  the 
streams,  the  fields,  the  roads,  and  the  mountains.  For  instance, 
on  a  small  altar  discovered  at  Rochester  is  the  inscription,  "  To 
the  goddess  Minerva,  Julius  Carantus  dedicated  this."  On  another, 
found  at  Tynemouth,  the  inscription  is  "  Aelius  Rufus,  prefect  of 
the  fourth  cohort  of  the  Lingones,  to  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus." 


AELRVFV 
PKAEFCOHI 
III-  L1NC 


Rufus>  found  at 


A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


An  altar  near  Chester,  where  springs  are  numerous,  is  inscribed 
"From  the  Twentieth  Legion,  the  Valiant-victorious,  to  the 
nymphs  and  fountains." 

Christianity  probably  made  its  way  early  into  Britain  as  into 
other  parts  of  the  then  known  world,  but  there  is  no  trust- 
worthy record  of  its  earliest  history.  There  were  certainly  indi- 
vidual Christians  in  Britain  in  the  third 
century  of  the  Christian  era.  The  old 
legend  of  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Alban 
places  that  event  at  the  beginning  of  the 
next  century,  and  bishops  of  London  and 
York  attended  a  church  council  in  Gaul 
in  314.  Christianity  became  the  official 
religion  of  the  Roman  Empire  after  the 
year  A.D.  324,  but  its  extension  and  in- 
fluence in  Britain  could  hardly  have  been 
very  great,  as  scarcely  more  than  a  single 
Christian  emblem  or  inscription  has  been 
found  among  the  Roman  remains,  and  the  mention  of  the  new 
faith  in  contemporary  writers  is  slight  and  obscure. 

19.  Decay  of  Roman  Britain.  —  As  time  passed  the  prosperity 
and  good  order  of  the  Roman  Empire  declined.  It  is  altogether 
probable  that  in  Britain,  as  in  other  provinces,  wealth  and  popu- 
lation were  decreasing,  and  it  is  certain  that  invasions  from  beyond 
the  borders  were  more  frequent.  One  of  the  causes  of  the  loss  of 
prosperity  was  the  heavy  taxation  which  was  necessary  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  army,  of  the  officeholders,  and  of  the  other  needs 
of  the  imperial  government.  Land  taxes,  poll  taxes,  taxes  on 
imports  and  exports  and  on  sales  had  become  so  heavy  and  were 
so  badly  distributed  that  property  decreased  in  value,  many  people 
found  it  impossible  to  make  a  living,  and  vast  numbers,  even  in 
times  of  order  and  safety,  were  utterly  miserable. 

During  the  fourth  century  of  the  Christian  era  the  government 
of  the  Empire  was  everywhere  experiencing  increasing  difficulty 


A  Christian  Emblem,  rep- 
resenting the  First  Two 
Greek  Letters  of  the 
Name  Christ :  on  a  Bar 
of  Lead  found  in  the 
River  Thames 


ROMAN    BRITAIN  31 

in  defending  its  frontiers  against  the  barbarian  races  outside  of  the 
borders.  Its  armies  .were  engaged  in  almost  constant  conflicts 
with  various  tribes  which  were  trying  to  make  their  way  into  the 
Empire.  In  some  cases  the  barbarians  came  to  plunder  and  then 
go  away ;  in  others  they  made  their  way  within  the  frontiers  and 
became  permanent  though  unwelcome  settlers.  Many  of  these 
barbarians  were  taken  individually  or  by  bands  into  the  military 
service  of  the  Roman  government,  and  became  an  efficient  but 
dangerous  element  in  the  army. 

In  Britain  the  principal  enemies  from  outside  the  frontiers  were 
the  Franks  and  the  Saxons,  who  ravaged  the  southeast  coast  from 
the  sea ;  the  Scots  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  who  made  frequent 
descents  upon  the  northwest  coast ;  and  the  Picts  or  Caledonians, 
who  still  invaded  the  province  from  time  to  time  as  they  had 
done  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  Roman  occupation.  The  first  of 
these  were  the  most  destructive,  as  they  attacked  the  most  popu- 
lous and  wealthy  part  of  the  province.  To  protect  the  people 
against  them,  a  line  of  nine  forts  was  erected  along  the  south- 
eastern coast,  and  a  fleet  was  regularly  kept  in  the  Channel. 
These  forts  and  the  fleet  were  under  the  command  of  an  official 
known  as  the  "  Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore  in  Britain."  His  office 
was  no  sinecure  and  he  was  constantly  engaged  in  beating  off 
invaders.  Notwithstanding  the  coast  defenses,  the  great  wall 
on  the  north,  and  the  military  stations  established  in  the  north- 
west, the  Picts,  Scots,  and  Saxons  made  repeated  attacks  and 
frequently  ravaged  great  sections  of  the  country.  In  368  we 
hear  of  marauders  capturing  slaves  and  cattle  within  a  few  miles 
of  London. 

20.  Withdrawal  of  the  Roman  Troops.  —  The  weakness  of  the 
military  defense  of  the  province  during  this  period  was  largely  the 
result  of  the  repeated  efforts  of  the  commanders  of  the  troops  in 
Britain  to  seize  the  control  of  the  whole  Empire.  Detached  from 
the  rest  of  the  Empire  in  their  island  province  they  had  opportu- 
nities to  gain  the  attachment  of  their  troops  and  to  strengthen 


32  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

themselves  till  they  were  practically  independent.  They  were 
then  tempted  to  revolt  against  the  central  government  and  to 
take  troops  to  the  continent  to  fight  for  imperial  sway. 

Several  successful  emperors  began  their  careers  in  this  way. 
But  such  attempts  were  in  most  cases  calamitous  failures.  In  383 
Clemens  Maximus  was  proclaimed  emperor  in  Britain,  and  soon 
afterwards  gathered  most  of  the  troops  in  the  island  and  took 
them  with  him  to  the  continent  to  contend  with  the  legitimate 
emperor.  He  was  eventually  killed,  and  few  of  his  troops  ever 
returned.  Although  reinforcements  for  the  garrison  in  Britain 
were  sent  over  a  few  years  later,  these  had  soon  to  be  withdrawn 
again  to  protect  Italy  against  the  Goths,  and  the  British  legions 
remained  permanently  weakened.  In  407  a  general  named  Con- 
stantine  was  proclaimed  emperor  under  the  name  Constantine  III 
by  the  soldiers  in  Britain,  and  he  and  his  troops  passed  over 
together  to  the  continent,  where  after  a  period  of  success  he 
also  was  defeated  and  killed.  This  left  the  province  practically 
without  troops.  In  410  the  emperor  Honorius,  finding  himself 
unable  to  send  troops,  wrote  from  Italy  urging  the  cities  of 
Britain  to  provide  for  their  own  defense.  The  government  of 
the  province  had  always  been  in  the  hands  of  the  military  com- 
mander, so  the  withdrawal  of  the  garrison  left  it  without  any  repre- 
sentative of  the  central  government  of  the  Empire.  Deprived  of 
its  military  garrison,  deserted  by  the  higher  imperial  officials,  and 
abandoned  by  the  emperor,  Britain  ceased  to  be  a  province  of 
the  Roman  Empire. 

2 1 .  Relapse  into  Barbarism.  —  A  period  of  some  two  hundred 
years  follows  of  which  we  have  only  a  few  glimpses  of  confusion 
and  increasing  barbarism.  When  the  province  was  abandoned 
by  its  rulers  and  defenders  it  might  be  expected  that  it  would 
simply  fall  back  into  the  tribal  independence  and  savage  simplic- 
ity of  life  of  the  Celtic  times  before  the  Roman  conquest,  three 
hundred  years  before.  But  this  was  impossible.  Britain  was  now 
occupied  by  a  mixed  race  of  which  the  Celts  were  only  one  element. 


ROMAN   BRITAIN  33 

Its  people  were  used  to  the  ways  of  civilization,  lived  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  in  cities,  and  carried  on  varied  occupations. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  no  organized  government  left,  and 
no  national  feeling  on  which  to  base  any,  since  the  Romans  had 
governed  Britain  for  centuries  in  the  interest  of  the  Empire  as  a 
whole,  without  regard  to  the  wishes  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  one 
province.  Roman  law  had  doubtless  superseded  the  old  tribal 
customs.  It  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  the  Britons  could, 
under  the  circumstances,  organize  a  new  government  for  themselves. 
There  was  no  military  force  and  no  capacity  for  self-protection  or 
defense,  as  the  whole  Roman  military  system  was  based  on  the 
standing  army,  without  any  local  militia  or  habit  of  bearing  arms 
among  the  common  people.  If  it  had  been  impossible  for  the 
legions  to  protect  the  frontiers  against  barbarians,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  unarmed,  untrained,  and  unorganized  population  of  the 
province  proved  unable  to  defend  their  land.  The  country  was 
already,  in  all  probability,  going  backward  in  wealth  and  popu- 
lation, and  even  the  cessation  of  Roman  taxation  could  not  restore 
or  keep  up  prosperity  in  such  times  of  confusion  and  calamity. 

There  are  almost  no  contemporary  records  written  in  Britain 
during  this  period,  and  almost  no  references  to  Britain  in  writers 
of  other  provinces.  We  know  little  more  than  that  it  was  a  time 
of  much  warfare  and  confusion,  invasion  and  new  settlement; 
that  the  old  cities  lost  their  inhabitants ;  that  civilization  gradu- 
ally died  out ;  that  Christianity  disappeared  ;  that  the  Latin  and 
Celtic  languages  alike  ceased  to  be  spoken  in  the  greater  part  of 
the  country.  All  these  gave  place  to  a  new  language,  a  new 
religion,  and  new  customs  brought  in  by  invaders. 

Certain  material  structures,  such  as  roads,  bridges,  and  buildings, 
remained ;  the  draining  and  clearing  of  swamps  and  forests  was  a 
permanent  benefit ;  a  few  new  animals,  trees,  and  plants  had  been 
introduced  ;  methods  of  agriculture  were  preserved  to  later  times ; 
and  many  boundaries  then  laid  down  were  permanently  kept. 
Except  for  these  things  Roman  Britain  had  passed  entirely  away, 


34 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


22.  Summary  of  the  Roman  Period. — The  period  of  Roman 
supremacy  in  Britain  was  a  single  episode  rather  than  part  of  the 
continuous  progress  of  the  development  of  the  English  nation, 
but  it  was  an  episode  of  much  interest.  After  the  beginning  of 
the  conquest,  A.D.  43,  the  Romans  rapidly  introduced  a  highly 
developed  civilization,  which  retained  its  dominance  until  the 


Roman  Mosaic  Pavement  recently  uncovered  at  Aldborough 

withdrawal  of  the  legions  in  407.  Those  two  dates  mark  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  civilization  in  Britain  for  many  cen- 
turies. It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  no  influence  was  exerted 
on  later  English  history  by  the  period  of  Roman  control,  but  it 
was  less  than  in  any  other  European  province  of  the  Empire. 
The  new  barbarian  settlers,  mixed  though  they  may  have  been 
with  the  old  population,  had  to  begin  the  work  of  creating  a 
civilization  and  building  a  nation  almost  anew. 


ROMAN   BRITAIN  35 

General  Reading.  —  The  best  short  account  is  in  the  little  book, 
SCARTH,  Roman  Britain.  The  book  by  WRIGHT,  The  Celt,  the  Roman,  and 
the  Saxon,  referred  to  at  the  close  of  the  previous  chapter,  is  particularly 
good  for  Roman  Britain.  The  fullest  and  best  narrative  of  the  events  of 
this  period  is  in  RAMSAY,  Foundations  of  England,  Vol.  I,  chap.  vii. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  TACITUS,  Agricola,  sects.  8-40 ;  Annales,  Book 
XIV.  Tacitus  was  the  son-in-law  of  Agricola,  and  probably  learned  from 
him  by  word  of  mouth  what  he  records  of  the  period  of  conquest  and 
organization  of  the  province.  Several  translations  of  the  works  of  Tacitus 
have  been  published.  The  most  convenient  is  the  "  Oxford  Translation," 
in  Bohn's  Library.  Extracts  from  Tacitus  are  given  in  LEE,  Source-Book, 
No.  19,  and  COLBY,  Sources,  No.  3.  Almost  all  we  know  about  the  period 
of  decay  is  in  GILDAS,  published  in  Six  Old  English  Chronicles  (a  volume 
in  Bohn's  Library). 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  TENNYSON,  Boadicea ;  COWPER,  Boadicea; 
CHURCH,  A.  J.,  The  Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore ;  CUTTS,  E.  L.,  The  Villa  of 
Claudius  ;  ARNOLD,  Phra  the  Phoenician. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  The  Roman  Wall,  in  MOMMSEN,  Roman  Provinces, 
Vol.  I,  chap,  v,  and  WRIGHT,  The  Celt,  the  Roman,  and  the  Saxon,  pp.  156- 
158;  (2)  Roads,  in  WRIGHT,  pp.  221-225  >  (3)  Villas,  in  TRAILL,  Social  Eng- 
land, Vol.  I,  pp.  76-82  and  93-95;  (4)  Towns,  ibid.,  pp.  15-18;  (5)  The 
Army,  ibid.,  pp.  56-64 ;  and  (6)  Roman  Influence  in  Britain,  ibid.,  pp.  18-25. 


CHAPTER   IV 
EARLY  SAXON  ENGLAND.     400-830 

23.  Settlements  of  the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes.  —  Of  the 
various  barbarous  enemies  that  ravaged  the  province  of  Britain 
during  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  the  Picts  and  Scots  made  no 
permanent  settlements  and  may  therefore  be  left  without  further 
notice.  On  the  other  hand,  the  invaders  that  came  by  sea  from 
the  continent  of  Europe  gradually  became  not  only  marauders 
but  conquerors  and  settlers.  The  Teutonic  tribes  that  occupied 
the  northwestern  coast  of  Europe  had  long  been  in  the  habit 
of  making  forays  into  the  cultivated  provinces  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  Time  and  time  again,  following  the  coasts  of  what 
are  now  Holland  and  Belgium  till  they  came  in  sight  of  the 
white  cliffs  of  Britain,  they  passed  across  the  strait  to  the 
island,  then  made  their  way  either  northward  along  the  east 
coast  or  westward  along  the  south  coast,  rowing  into  some  river 
mouth  or  landing  on  some  unwatched  beach  and  ravaging  the 
adjoining  country.  During  the  period  of  decay  of  Roman  Britain 
their  invasions  became  more  frequent  and  their  numbers  greater. 
These  marauders  were  principally  Angles,  Saxons,  Frisians,  and 
Jutes,  coming  from  the  seacoast  of  the  Netherlands,  northwestern 
Germany,  and  southern  Denmark. 

At  some  time  during  this  period  they  began  to  settle  in  the 
land  they  had  formerly  merely  ravaged.  According  to  an  old 
tradition,  when  the  Britons  were  especially  hard  pressed  by  the 
Picts  and  the  Scots,  they  invited  the  sea  rovers  in  to  defend 
them,  giving  them  land  for  settlement  in  return.  This  earliest 
permanent  settlement  is  reported  to  have  been  in  449,  under  the 

36 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND  37 

leadership  of  two  chieftains,  Hengist  and  Horsa.  The  facts,  names, 
and  dates  given  in  the  early  chronicles  are,  however,  fragmen- 
tary, confused,  and  uncertain.  These  chronicles  were  written  in 
much  later  times,  and  give  us  at  best  only  the  dim  outlines  of  the 
process  of  settlement  of  these  newcomers  into  Britain. 

During  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  bands  of  invaders  continued 
to  come  over  from  the  same  lands  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
settlements  for  themselves  on  the  coast  of  Britain  or  farther 
inland.  Each  body  seems  to  have  come  under  the  leadership 
of  its  own  chieftain  or  ealdorman,  and  to  have  made  what  terms 
it  could,  peaceful  or  hostile,  with  the  Britons.  Some  districts 
were  no  doubt  but  thinly  populated,  and  the  invaders  simply 
occupied  the  country  as  fellow  settlers  with  the  Britons  who  were 
already  there.  In  other  parts  there  were  bitter  struggles  and 
long  sieges,  and  only  after  successive  battles  were  the  invaders 
able  to  hold  the  land  and  either  subject  the  Britons  to  their 
control  or  drive  them  out  of  the  district  altogether. 

The  newcomers  were  seldom  satisfied  with  a  mere  foothold. 
On  some  parts  of  the  coast  leaders  with  numerous  followers 
immediately  after  they  had  landed  entered  upon  a  course  of  war- 
fare and  conquest  of  the  country  lying  inland,  while  in  other 
parts  the  detached  bands  of  early  settlers  were  only  later  drawn 
together  by  some  warlike  leader  who  then  proceeded  to  extend 
his  dominion  by  conquests  from  the  Britons  far  into  the  interior 
of  the  country.  In  this  way,  before  the  year  600,  fully  one  half 
of  the  island  had  been  more  or  less  completely  occupied  and  con- 
quered by  the  Teutonic  tribes  from  the  continent,  and  a  number 
of  petty  kingdoms  had  been  formed,  each  under  its  own  ruler. 

24.  The  Early  Kingdoms.  —  In  the  northeast  the  country 
from  the  Firth  of  Forth  to  the  Humber  River  had  been  formed 
into  two  kingdoms,  Bernicia  and  Deira.  These  were  frequently 
combined  into  one,  which  was  then  spoken  of  as  the  kingdom  of 
the  Northumbrians.  Its  people  were  Angles.  Another  group  of 
Angle  tribes  had  occupied  the  district  between  the  Humber  and 


38  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  Wash,  had  conquered  the  natives  far  inland  to  the  westward, 
and  formed  the  large  kingdom  known  as  Mercia.  Still  further 
down  the  eastern  coast,  in  the  old  district  of  the  Iceni,  were  the 
North  Folk  and  the  South  Folk,  who  were  together  known  as  the 
East  Angles. 

The  country  to  the  south  of  this  was  occupied  by  Saxons,  except 
two  small  districts  which  were  settled  by  Jutes.  Those  who  had 
occupied  the  land  just  north  of  the  Thames  River  were  the  East 
Saxons.  A  branch  of  these,  who  had  gone  westward  and  captured 
London  and  the  land  around  it,  were  known  as  the  Middle 
Saxons.  The  land  in  the  extreme  southeast  had  been  occupied 
by  Jutes  who  became  known  as  Kentishmen.1  Their  kingdom 
extended  to  the  Thames  on  the  north  and  to  the  great  .forest  on 
the  west.  The  narrow  strip  of  land  between  this  forest  and  the 
Channel  on  the  south  was  the  kingdom  of  the  South  Saxons.  The 
old  city  of  Anderida  had  been  captured  by  them,  a  later  chronicle 
says,  as  early  as  491,  and  every  Briton  in  it  killed. 

The  Isle  of  Wight  and  the  mainland  just  north  of  it  were  early 
settled  by  a  body  of  Jutes.  The  most  important  settlers  and  con- 
querors here,  however,  were  the  West  Saxons,  who  came  some- 
what later.  They  landed  in  Southampton  Water  about  500  A.D., 
under  their  leader  or  ealdorman  Cerdic.  The  land  here  lay  open 
to  the  northward  and  westward,  with  Roman  roads  extending  in 
all  directions  into  the  heart  of  the  country.  But  the  native  popu- 
lation was  probably  more  numerous  and  wealthy  here  than  in  any 
other  part  of  Britain,  and  the  Saxons  had  to  fight  their  way  step 
by  step.  In  twenty  years  they  had  brought  under  control  the 
district  which  now  makes  up  the  county  of  Hampshire.  Under 
successive  rulers  in  the  remainder  of  the  century  they  made 
further  advances,  capturing  a  number  of  old  cities  and  conquer- 
ing the  country  across  the  Thames  and  some  distance  up  the 

xThe  name  Kent  is  from  the  Celtic  word  "  Caint,"  an  open  place. 
The  Jutish  inhabitants  called  themselves  "  Caintwara,"  or  dwellers  in  the 
Caint.  Canterbury,  or  Caintwarabyrig,  means  the  town  of  the  Caintwara. 


Greenwich  0 

SETTLEMENTS 

oftlie 
AXGEES.  SAXONS  and  JUTES 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND 


39 


valley  of  the  Severn.  This  difficult  military  conquest  resulted  in 
making  the  West  Saxons  the  strongest  and  most  compact  race  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  invaders.  The  seven  kingdoms  formed  by  the 
Northumbrians,  Mercians,  East  Anglians,  East  Saxons,  Kentish- 
men,  South  Saxons,  and  West  Saxons  are  often  spoken  of  as  the 
Heptarchy,  though  there  was  no  fixed  and  permanent  grouping 
into  this  number.  Sometimes  conquest  reduced  two  or  more 
under  one  ruler;  at  other  times 
local  rebellions  or  other  causes  of 
separation  made  the  number  of 
independent  kingdoms  greater. 

25.  The  New  Race.  —  It  is  im- 
possible to  tell  how  far  the  people 
of  these  petty  kingdoms  were  pure 
Teutonic  settlers  from  Germany, 
and  how  far  they  were  a  mixed  race 
including  descendants  of  the  old 
inhabitants  of  Britain.     It  is   in- 
credible that  the  earlier  population 
should  have  been  actually  exter- 
minated, yet  what  proportion  sur- 
vived we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 
It  is    especially   unfortunate    that 

contemporary  records  are  almost  absolutely  wanting  for  the  period 
in  which  the  very  foundations  of  the  English  race  were  being  laid. 
Nevertheless  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  very  large  propor- 
tion of  the  population  sprang  from  the  newcomers.  Their  lan- 
guage, religion,  government,  and,  in  the  main,  their  customs, 
rapidly  superseded  those  of  Celtic  and  Roman  Britain. 

26.  The   New  Language.  —  The   new  settlers   spoke   dialects 
of  the  Low  German  branch  of  the  Teutonic  group  of  languages, 
nearly  allied  to  the  languages  of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula,  of 
the  Netherlands,  and  of  northern  Germany.     Alongside  of  this 
new  language,  Latin  and,  in  all  except  the  western  part  of  the 


Early  Anglo-Saxon  Dress 
Fastenings 


40  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

country,  Celtic  disappeared.  Only  a  few  words  of  Latin  and  Celtic 
origin  were  retained  and  became  a  permanent  part  of  the  language 
of  the  country. 

Little  if  any  of  the  language  of  the  invaders  existed  in  written 
form,  though  runes,  or  rude  letters  copied  from  Latin  or  Greek 
capitals,  were  known  to  them  before  they  had  come  into  Britain, 
and  were  used  to  a  slight  extent  for  inscriptions  on  stones,  on 
horn  implements,  and  other  objects.  Soon  after  their  settlement 
in  Britain  some  scholars  who  were  familiar  with  written  Latin  began 
in  imitation  of  that  language  to  write  down  their  own  words  as 
they  sounded,  thus  giving  rise  to  a  written  as  well  as  a  spoken 
language.  This  was  first  done  among  the  Angles  of  Northumbria. 
Native  written  language  was  therefore  known  as  English,1  even  in 
the  Saxon  kingdoms,  to  which  the  custom  of  writing  soon  spread. 
From  this  use  of  the  word  English  as  applied  to  the  language, 
added  to  the  fact  that  the  Angles  were  the  most  numerous  of  the 
invaders  and  had  overspread  the  larger  part  of  the  island,  grew 
the  custom  of  applying  the  term  English  to  the  whole  new  race. 
The  name  Angle-land  or  England  was  eventually  given  to  the 
whole  country  which  the  Angles,  Saxons,  and  Jutes  occupied.  In 
modern  times  Anglo-Saxon  is  the  expression  usually  applied  both 
to  the  people  of  the  period  and  to  their  language. 

Poems  and  songs  already  existed  which  only  needed  to  be 
written  down  to  become  a  body  of  literature,  and  this  was  done 
soon  after  the  new  race  entered  Britain.  War  songs,  poems  cele- 
brating the  successes  of  their  leaders,  sagas  or  rhythmical  tales 
of  adventure,  poems  personifying  the  changes  in  nature,  with 
descriptions  of  summer  and  winter,  sea,  storm,  clouds,  and  winds, 
made  up  the  poetic  possessions  of  the  Angles  and  Saxons  at  the 
time  of  their  emigration  from  the  old  lands  to  the  new.  A  famous 
piece  of  literature  which  has  survived  from  this  time  is  Beoimtlf, 

1  Engle  and  Angle  were  equivalent  forms,  sometimes  one,  sometimes 
the  other  being  used ;  but  it  has  become  usual  to  speak  of  the  people  as 
Angles,  the  language  as  English. 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND  41 

a  long  narrative  poem  describing  the  adventures  of  a  hero  of  that 
name.  It  tells  how  he  slew  a  fierce  dragon  named  Grendel,  and 
afterwards  a  still  more  terrible  monster,  the  mother  of  Grendel ; 
how  he  lived  as  a  virtuous  king  and  then  in  his  old  age  was 
killed  in  a  contest  with  another  dragon.  The  tale  with  its  wild 
scenery  and  vigorous  figures  of  speech  shows  a  spirit  of  strenuous 
effort,  love  of  battle,  barbaric  loyalty  to  friends  and  cruelty  to 
foes,  and  fearlessness  of  death.  It  holds  that  every  man  has  his 
weird,  a  fate  which  must  be  endured  and  against  which  all  resist- 
ance is  in  vain.  Yet  for  all  the  fierce,  wild  life  the  poem  represents, 
Beowulf's  followers  declare  of  him  after  his  death  that  he  was 

Of  all  men  the  mildest,  and  to  men  the  kindest, 
To  his  people  gentlest,  and  of  praise  the  keenest. 

Another  poem,  commonly  called  the  Ruined  Burgh,  appears  to 
describe  the  remains  of  an  old  Roman  city  as  it  appeared  to  a 
West  Saxon  poet. 

Windowless  is  this  wall  of  stone ;  weirds  have  shattered  it. 
Broken  are  the  burgh-steads,  crumbled  down  the  giants'  work ; 
Fallen  down  are  the  roof-beams,  ruined  are  the  towers. 

27.  The  Religion  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. — The  religion  of  the 
new  settlers  was  similar  to  that  of  the  other  Teutonic  races. 
Woden  was  the  great  war  god,  whose  name  forms  part  of  many 
place  names  in  England  1  and  survives  in  our  word  Wednesday. 
He  was  the  reputed  ancestor  of  the  royal  line  of  almost  every  one , 
of  the  petty  kingdoms.  Thor  was  the  god  of  rain  and  storms  and 
thunder,  whose  name  is  preserved  in  our  Thursday.  Tuesday, 
Friday,  and  perhaps  Saturday  are  also  named  from  early  English 
deities.  Other  powers  of  good  and  evil,  greater  and  lesser,  were 
worshiped  or  dreaded.  The  early  English  were  as  superstitious 
as  other  barbarians,  and  their  minds  were  full  of  stories  of  mythical 
heroes,  of  giants,  witches,  monsters,  and  strange  beings  scarcely 
1  Such  as  Wodensbury,  Woden's  Dyke,  and  Wanborough. 


42  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

belonging  to  this  world.  They  believed,  as  the  more  ignorant  of 
their  descendants  have  always  since  believed,  in  signs,  in  lucky 
and  unlucky  places  and  times,  in  elves,  goblins,  pixies,  and  fairies. 
But  of  this  mythology  there  are  left  only  a  few  vague  indications 
in  the  names  of  places,  in  old  legends,  and  in  the  fairy  tales  that 
have  survived  but  are  now  told  only  to  children. 

There  were  priests  devoted  to  the  worship  of  the  gods,  and 
inclosures,  altars,  and  images  dedicated  to  the  various  deities. 
The  priests  do  not  seem  to  have  exercised  the  influence  over  the 
English  which  the  Druids  had  over  the  early  Britons.  Nor  did 
the  religion  of  the  early  English  have  so  strong  a  hold  upon  them 
that  it  proved  difficult  afterwards  to  induce  them  to  abandon  it. 

28.  Government There  is  still  less  known  of  the  government 

than  of  the  language  and  religion  of  the  new  race,  and  nothing 
like  a  clear  conception  of  it  can  be  obtained  till  a  time  long  after 

the  settlement.  The  chieftains  who  led  the  first 
bodies  of  settlers  had  probably  held  no  very 
elevated  position  in  their  home  land.  In  the 
process  of  migration  and  as  a  result  of  the  con- 
quests they  made  in  Britain  they  took  the  title 

ofkingandobtamedincreasedautnority-  Never- 
theless the  great  men  of  the  nation  still  exercised 
considerable  power,  and  the  kings  were  scarcely  more  than  leaders 
of  their  nation  in  war.  Family  or  clan  organization  was  important, 
and  the  heads  of  families  had  much  influence.  There  was  no  such 
thing  as  equality  among  the  people,  eorls  or  nobles  being  clearly 
distinguished  from  ceorls  or  common  men.  Slavery  was  also  com- 
mon. Law  was  merely  custom,  and  was  explained  and  applied  in 
special  cases  by  the  people  themselves  in  gatherings  held  at  regu- 
lar intervals. 

29.  Barbarism.  —  One    of   the    most    marked    changes    from 
Roman  Britain  was  the  almost  entire  cessation  of  city  life.     The 
old  towns  had  sunk  into  ruins  in  the  times  of  confusion,  or  had 
been  destroyed  in  the  storms  of  the  conquest.     The  newcomers 


EARLY  SAXON   ENGLAND  43 

were  used  only  to  agriculture,  cattle  raising,  fishing,  and  hunting. 
They  were  not  sufficiently  advanced  in  knowledge  or  wealth 
for  city  life.  They  saw  no  attraction  in  the  enjoyments  of 
towns ;  their  pleasures  were  found  in  hunting  and  warfare. 
Walled  cities  were  even  a  matter  of  dislike  to  them.  They  con- 
nected them  with  confinement  and  with  mysterious  powers. 
Love  of  liberty,  lack  of  industrial  and  trading  knowledge,  and 
fear  of  magic  alike  led  the  Angles  and  Saxons  to  prefer  the  open 
life  of  the  woods  and  fields.  Therefore,  although  some  of  the 
cities  such  as  London,  York,  and  Canterbury  may  have  retained 
some  population  and  even,  possibly,  an  organized  government, 
yet  they  shrank  into  small,  unprosperous  and  insignificant  towns, 
while  others  disappeared  altogether.  The  great  body  of  the  pop- 
ulation lived  in  small  villages  or  in  country  houses  surrounded  by 
banks  or  hedges. 

Nor  were  the  Anglo-Saxons  traders.  Their  crude  agriculture 
and  still  cruder  handicrafts  gave  them  but  little  with  which  to 
trade,  nor  were  they  sufficiently  civilized  to  have  needs  not  satis- 
fied by  their  own  efforts  or  by  plundering.  The  roads  therefore 
had  much  the  same  fate  as  the  cities.  Most  of  them  were  neg- 
lected and  disregarded.  A  few,  however,  remained  in  use  and 
were  even  kept  in  repair.  Portions  of  them  have  remained,  as  has 
been  said,  even  to  this  day,  and  detached  sections  of  many  more 
are  still  traceable.  Four  of  the  old  roads  retained  such  impor- 
tance as  to  be  given  distinctive  names  by  the  Anglo-Saxons  and 
to  be  frequently  mentioned  in  their  records  as  boundaries  or 
means  of  communication.  The  best  known  of  these  is  Watling 
Street,  the  Roman  road  from  the  southern  ports  to  London, 
thence  northwestward  to  Chester,  across  the  island  again  to 
York,  and  finally  northward  to  the  great  wall.  Its  name  is  a  good 
indication  of  the  mixture  of  races,  combining  the  Roman  word 
strata,  meaning  a  paved  road,  with  the  name  of  a  race  of  heroes 
of  Anglo-Saxon  mythology,  the  Waetlings.  Ermine  Street,  the 
great  northern  road  to  Lincoln  and  thence  to  York,  was  likewise 


44  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

named  for  a  Saxon  deity,  Eormen.  The  Icknield-way  was  a 
Roman  road  extending  from  the  southwestern  part  of  the  country 
across  to  Norwich  and  the  eastern  coast,  and  the  Fosse-way  was 
another  extending  from  Exeter  and  Bath  to  Lincoln.  The  Roman 
bridges  were  likewise  preserved  in  some  cases  |  in  others  neglected 
till  they 'disappeared. 

For  such  slight  trade  as  existed,  the  remaining  Roman  money 
must  have  nearly  sufficed.  Still  the  early  Saxons  had  some  silver 
coins  of  small  value,  either  brought  with  them  or  minted  soon 
after  the  settlement,  in  imitation  of  the  Roman  coinage. 

30.  The  Mission  of  Augustine.  —  In  many  ways  England  had 
gone  back  to  much  the  same  state  of  barbarism  as  that  in  which 
it  had  been  before  the  Roman  conquest,  and  the  work  of  civili- 
zation had  to  be  begun  almost  anew.  One  of  the  first  steps  of 
this  advancement,  was  the  reintroduction  of  Christianity. 

Rome  was  at  this  time  the  source  of  much  missionary  effort. 
An  old  story  tells  how  Gregory,  a  Roman  deacon,  in  going  to  the 
market  place  and  seeing  some  boys  with  white  skin,  fair  faces, 
and  fine  hair  exposed  by  a  merchant  for  sale  as  slaves,  was  struck 
with  their  beauty  and  asked  their  race.  When  he  was  told  they 
were  Angles  and  came  from  a  heathen  land,  he  declared  that 
they  looked  rather  like  angels,  and  ought  to  be  rescued  from 
paganism  to  become  joint  heirs  with  the  angels  of  heaven.  When 
he  was  chosen  pope,  some  years  afterwards,  he  organized  a  body 
of  monks  as  missionaries,  placed  them  under  the  direction  of 
a  Roman  priest  named  Augustine,1  and  sent  them  to  England. 
After  passing  through  France  and  obtaining  some  new  com- 
panions and  interpreters  they  crossed  the  Channel  and  landed  on 
the  shore  of  Kent  in  the  spring  of  597. 

The  way  was  prepared  for  them.  The  people  of  Kent  already 
had  more  intercourse  with  the  continent  than  those  of  the  more 

1  This  Augustine  must  not  be  confused  with  the  great  African  bishop 
of  the  same  name,  who  lived  two  centuries  before.  The  story  referred  to  is 
in  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History,  Book  II,  chap.  i. 


EARLY   SAXON    ENGLAND 


45 


distant  parts  of  England,  and  the  wife  of  Ethelbert,1  king  of  Kent, 
was  a  daughter  of  the  Frankish  king  who  reigned  in  Paris.  She 
was  a  Christian,  had  been  accompanied  to  England  by  a  Christian 
bishop,  and  was  already  using  for  private  worship  an  old  dismantled 
Roman  church  on  the  outskirts  of  Canterbury. 

Therefore,  when  Augustine  and  his  companions  sent  word  to 
the  king  of  their  arrival  and  of  the  messages  they  had  brought, 
the  matter  can  hardly  have  been  new  to  Ethelbert.  With  true 


Church  of  St.  Martin  at  Canterbury 

barbarian  dislike  of  confinement,  however,  and  doubtless  with 
some  fear  of  magic,  he  arranged  to  meet  the  missionaries  in  the 
open  air.  Augustine  and  his  companions  came  to  the  conference 
bearing  a  silver  cross  and  a  picture  of  Christ  painted  on  a  board, 
and  singing  the  litany.  Augustine  then  preached  to  the  king 
and  his  attendants.  He  was  listened  to  patiently,  and  with  his 
companions  allowed  to  come  to  Canterbury  and  given  permission 

1  The  Anglo-Saxon  form  of  this  name  is  ^Ethelberht.  The  ancient  forms 
of  proper  names  will  be  used  in  this  book  only  when  the  name  has  disap- 
peared altogether  from  use  and  has  no  modern  equivalent. 


46  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

to  teach  and  preach.     Some  time  afterwards  Ethelbert  himself, 
with  many  others,  accepted  Christianity  and  was  baptized. 

Augustine  soon  went  to  the  continent  and  was  ordained  by  con- 
sent of  the  pope  "  archbishop  of  the  English  " ;  then  returned 
and  proceeded  to  spread  and  organize  the  Christian  church  in 
that  country.  At  first  Queen  Bertha's  chapel  of  St.  Martin  at 
Canterbury  was  used,  then  another  old  Roman  church  was 
repaired  and  became  the  predecessor  of  Canterbury  Cathedral. 
Other  buildings  and  lands  were  granted  to  them,  and  the  work 
of  conversion  and  the  establishment  of  new  centers  was  carried 
as  far  as  the  influence  of  Ethelbert  extended,  which  was  at  that 
time  far  beyond  the  limits  of  Kent. 

31.  The   Conversion    of    Northumbria.  — With    the    death    of 
Ethelbert   difficulties   arose,    and    the   progress    of  Christianity 
became  very  slow.     In  most  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  south  and 
center  of  the  country  there  was  much  resistance.     In  North- 
umbria, however,   circumstances  were  more  favorable.     About 
thirty  years  after  the  arrival  of  Augustine  in  Kent,  Edwin  of 
Deira  obtained  the  crown  of  Northumbria  and  married  a  Kent- 
ish princess.     She  brought  with  her  to  Northumbria  Paulinus,  a 
Kentish  priest,  ordained  bishop  for  the  purpose  of  introducing 
Christianity  into  the  north.     This  bishop  urged  Edwin  and  his 
court  to  become  Christians,  but  for  a  long  time  without  success. 
Finally,  as  one  of  the  most  picturesque  of  the  old  stories  recounts, 
the  king  and  his  nobles  yielded  to  the  preaching  of  Paulinus  and 
the  old  gods  were  deserted.1     Soon  the  king  and  the  leading  men 
of  the  Northumbrians  were  baptized,  and  a  church  was  built,  first 
of  wood  and  later  of  stone,  which  afterwards  became  York  Min- 
ster.    Christianity  was  thus  established  in  the  north. 

32.  The    Scottish    Missions.  —  Even   when   a   defeat   of  the 
Northumbrians  by  the  heathen  king  of  Mercia  brought  a  wave 
of  paganism  back  over  the  country  and  drove  Paulinus,  with  the 
widow  and  children  of  Edwin,  back  to  Kent,  the   process  of 

1  See  the  story  in  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History,  Book  II,  chap.  xiii. 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND 


47 


conversion  was  only  stopped  for  a  moment,  for  Scottish  monks  from 
the  northward  came  across  the  old  wall  and  preached  Christianity 
among  the  people.  Their  leader  was  Aidan,  a  monk  and  bishop, 
educated  and  ordained  at  the  monastery  of  lona,  who  presented 
himself  to  King  Oswald,  a  successor  of  Edwin,  and  formed  a 
friendship  with  him  that  remained  unbroken  through  both  of 
their  lives.  Aidan  and  his 
monks  were  granted  Lin- 
disfarne,  or  Holy  Island, 
lying  off  the  Northum- 
brian coast,  as  a  dwell- 
ing place,  and  made  it 
a  new  center  for  the 
spread  of  religion  and 
the  establishment  of 
churches.  Enthusiastic 
missionaries  sent  out 
thence  passed  through  all 
the  northern  and  central 
parts  of  England,  winning 
converts  among  the  com- 
mon people,  the  nobles, 
and  the  rulers.  In  the 
meantime  other  mission- 
aries had  come  from  the 
continent  to  the  East 
Angles  and  West  Saxons  ; 
the  East  Saxons  had  been 
reconverted  from  the 


Initial  Letter  and  Opening  Words  of  a  Manu- 
script Copy  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel  in  the 
Lindisfarne  Gospel  Book,  written  about 
700  A.D- 


north,  and  by  650,  scarcely  fifty  years  after  the  arrival  of  Augustine, 
all  England  except  Sussex  had  become  Christian.  The  South 
Saxons,  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  English  by  forest  and  swamps, 
were  converted  later  in  the  century.  Of  course  much  of  this  con- 
version must  have  been  merely  nominal.  Remote  districts  must 


48  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

have  long  remained  untouched  by  it,  and  we  have  records  which 
show  that  charms,  signs,  belief  in  various  supernatural  beings,  and 
strange  local  customs  and  legends  still  survived  and  made  up 
much  of  the  everyday  religion  of  the  people.  The  old  heathenism 
as  a  matter  of  popular  custom  died  slowly. 

33.  The  Synod  of  Whitby As    Christianity  became    more 

widespread,  dissensions  arose,  among  those  who  were  preaching 
the  new  religion,  that  prevented  their  cooperation  and  the  forma- 
tion of  a  united  religious  body.  There  were  in  reality  two  forms 
of  Christianity  in  the  British  Islands :  one  existing  among  the 
Celtic  races  and  taught  by  the  missionaries  who  came  from  them, 
the  other  that  which  had  been  introduced  by  missionaries  who 
came  directly  from  the  continent.  The  Britons  in  the  western 
part  of  the  island  had  retained  their  Christianity  from  Roman 
times.  It  had  been  carried  thence  to  Ireland  by  St.  Patrick  just 
about  the  time  of  the  departure  of  the  Romans  from  Britain. 
Almost  at  the  same  time  the  Scots,  who  occupied  the  north  of 
Ireland,  began  to  make  conquests  and  settlements  on  the  western 
coast  of  the  land  of  the  Picts.1  Here  the  monastery  of  lona  was 
founded  and  became  a  new  center  of  missionary  activity  for  the 
conversion  of  the  Picts.  This  Celtic  branch  of  the  Christian 
church  in  Wales,  in  Ireland,  and  in  Scotland  followed  somewhat 
different  customs  from  those  of  the  church  as  it  had  grown  up 
in  the  continental  countries.  It  differed  in  the  calculation  of 
the  date  of  Easter,  in  the  forms  used  in  baptism,  and  in  the 
tonsure  or  ceremonial  cutting  of  the  hair  of  churchmen.  The 
Celtic  clergy  were  enthusiastic  and  devoted  to  the  work  of  preach- 
ing and  teaching  among  the  common  people,  but  they  had  adopted 

1  Scot  was  simply  the  Roman  name  for  Gael,  that  branch  of  the  Celts 
of  Britain  which  lived  in  Ireland.  In  the  sixth  century  the  Scots  began 
to  make  settlements  on  the  western  islands  and  mainland  of  Caledonia, 
the  country  of  the  Picts.  These  conquests  and  settlements  extended  over 
a  larger  and  larger  region  until  the  Scots  became  the  most  important  part 
of  the  population  and  the  whole  country  came  to  be  called  Scotland. 


EARLY   SAXON    ENGLAND  49 

a  very  simple,  almost  disorderly  form  of  church  government.  The 
abbots  of  the  great  monasteries  like  lona  and  Lindisfarne  were 
the  most  influential  church  officials.  The  priests  wandered  from 
place  to  place  baptizing,  saying  mass,  marrying,  and  performing 
other  ceremonies  of  the  church ;  and  even  the  bishops,  in  Ireland 
and  Scotland  at  least,  were  only  priests  fulfilling  somewhat  higher 
functions,  but  having  no  settled  territory  under  their  charge.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  missionaries  who  had  been  sent  from  the  con- 
tinent, and  the  English  churchmen  who  had  visited  France  and 
Italy  and  then  returned  to  England,  held  the  continental  view  of 
the  date  of  Easter  and  of  similar  questions.  They  were  also 
strongly  impressed  with  the  power  and  authority  of  the  church  as 
it  was  being  more  carefully  organized  in  the  continental  countries. 
When  by  appointment  to  bishoprics  in  the  center  or  north  of 
England  they  came  into  contact  with  the  Celtic  clergy,  they 
quarreled  with  them  on  these  disputed  points  and  strove  to  force 
them  to  conform  to  the  continental  customs.  These  disputes 
finally  led  to  the  calling  by  the  Northumbrian  king,  in  664,  of 
a  council  of  churchmen  and  others  at  Whitby,  where,  after  a 
long  discussion,  the  king  gave  his  voice  in  favor  of  the  southern 
customs.  The  Celtic  customs  from  this  time  forward  were  given 
up  in  England,  and  gradually  passed  away  even  in  Scotland, 
Wales,  and  Ireland. 

34.  Organization  of  the  Christian  Church  in  England.  —  The 
Christian  church  in  England  thus  took  shape  as  one  united  body, 
with  the  same  customs,  teachings,  and  organization  as  were  in 
existence  in  all  other  countries  of  western  Europe  which  looked 
to  Rome  as  a  religious  center.  Bishoprics  were  established, 
churches  built,  and  the  people  converted  and  taught.  Next  came 
the  more  complete  internal  organization  of  the  church.  This  was 
largely  borrowed  from  the  continental  countries,  where  the  old 
organization  and  civil  administration- of  the  Roman  Empire  had 
been  adopted  by  the  Christian  clergy  and  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  church.  The  work  of  organization  in  England  was 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


principally  carried  out  between  670  and  690  by  Theodore  of 
Tarsus,  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Theodore  was  a  Greek  monk  and  had  been  trained  in  Greek 
philosophy  and  theology.  He  spent  some  time  at  Rome  and 
came  under  the  influence  of  the  Roman  ideas  of  church  organi- 
zation. When  he  was  sent  to  England  there  were  seven  bishops, 
whose  districts  corresponded  pretty  nearly  to  the  old  kingdoms. 
By  the  influence  of  Theodore  several  of  these  districts  were  soon 

divided,  usually  on  the 
lines  of  the  original 
tribal  settlements,  so 
that  there  came  to 
be  fifteen  dioceses  or 
,,  bishops'  sees,  all  rec- 
ognizing the  bishop 
of  Canterbury,  who 
was  known  as  the 
"archbishop."  Later 
a  second  archbishopric 
was  founded.  The 
northern  bishoprics 
were  placed  under  the 


Church  at  Bradford-on-Avon  :  the  only  Com- 
plete Church  surviving  from  Saxon  Times 


supervision  of  the 
bishop  of  the  North- 
umbrians, with  his  principal  seat  at  York,  who  therefore  became 
known  as  the  "  archbishop  of  York."  Each  bishop  was  required 
to  attend  to  the  affairs  of  his  own  diocese  only,  not  intruding  into 
any  other,  and  priests  were  placed  strictly  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  their  own  bishop.  Throughout  the  country  priests  were 
gradually  established,  and  churches  built  in  each  village.  In 
673  at  Hertford  was  held  a  meeting  or  synod  of  all  the  bishops, 
at  which  rules  were  adopted  for  churchmen  in  all  the  dioceses 
alike ;  and  such  church  councils  were  held  frequently  afterward. 
Thus  England  was  organized  into  a  single  body  for  religious 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND  51 

purposes,  while  it  was  still  divided   politically  into  a  number 
of  independent  kingdoms.1 

35.  Monasteries.  —  There  were  other  churchmen  in  England 
besides  the  bishops  and  the  parish  priests.     These  were  the 
numerous  groups  of  monks  who  were  established  in  monasteries 
throughout   England.      Monks  and   nuns  are  men  and  women 
who  take  vows  to  live  according  to  some  religious  rule  govern- 
ing all  the  actions  of  life.2     The  rule  followed  in  England  at  this 
time,  as  in  most  of  the  countries  of  western  Europe,  was  that  of 
St.  Benedict.     Benedictine  monasteries  usually  arose  in  this  way. 
A  body  of  men  or  of  women  gathered  around  an  abbot  or  an 
abbess  and  bound  themselves  by  the  three  vows  of  chastity,  pov- 
erty, and  obedience.     That  is  to  say,  they  promised  not  to  marry, 
not  to  possess  any  private  property,  and  to  obey  their  abbot  in  all 
things.    A  pious   king  or  noble  granted  them  land,  which  was 
added  to  from  time  to  time  by  the  gifts  of  others.     Supported 
partly  by  the  rents  from  this  land  and  partly  by  their  own  labor, 
they  lived  according  to  the  requirements  of  their  rule,  more  or 
less  completely  withdrawn  from  the  usual  occupations  and  inter- 
ests of  the  world.     Thus  monasteries  were  established  in  many 
out-of-the-way  places,  such  as  Peterborough  and  Croyland  in  the 
Fen  district  between  East  Anglia  and  Mercia,  Malmesbury  and 
Sherborne  farther  west,  and  Lindisfarne,  Whitby,  Wearmouth,  and 
Jarrow  in  the  far  north. 

36.  Revival  of  Civilization.  —  With  the  organization  of  the 
Christian  church  and  the  foundation  of  monasteries  came  a  dis- 
tinct advance  in  all  parts  of  English  civilization.    Men  trained  as 
clergymen,  especially  those  who  had  traveled  to  the  continent, 

1  See  map  of  England  divided  into  dioceses  opposite  p.  56. 

2  They  are  therefore  spoken  of  as  the  "  regular  "  clergy,  from  the  Latin 
word  regula,  a  rule.     The  clergy  who  were  not  monks  or  nuns  were  called 
the  "  secular "  clergy,  because  their  work  lay  in  the  ordinary  world,  from 
the  Latin  word  saculum.    These  included  the  bishops,  parish  priests,  and 
others  connected  with  the  organized  church  outside  of  the  monasteries. 


52  A    SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

learned  of  the  old  Roman  civilization  which  had  been  destroyed 
in  England  during  the  times  of  barbaric  violence,  and  used  their 
knowledge  in  the  introduction  of  higher  ways  of  living.  In  the 
monasteries  the  monks  and  their  dependents  raised  better  varieties 
of  grain,  fruits  and  vegetables,  kept  up  fish  ponds,  and  even  pro- 
duced some  kinds  of  crude  manufactures.  The  more  ambitious 
bishops  and  abbots  succeeded  in  erecting  stone  churches  and 
monastery  buildings,  and  in  obtaining  for  use  in  them  glass  win- 
dows, vessels  of  brass,  gold  and  silver,  ornamental  clothing  for 
religious  services,  and  finally  even  books,  religious  and  classical. 
At  first  these  articles  were  imported  from  the  continental  coun- 
tries. This  led  to  some  trading;  afterwards  men  were  brought 
over  who  could  make  them;  and  they  were  soon  frequently 
manufactured  in  England  itself.  Thus  under  the  influence  of 
established  church  government  regular  industry  and  peaceful  de- 
velopment of  the  country  went  on  in  a  higher  degree,  notwith- 
standing the  continuance  of  much  violence,  disorder,  and  warfare. 

37.  Education  and  Literature.  —  Literature  also  awoke  to  a  new 
life.  Archbishop  Theodore  had  been  accompanied  in  his  travels 
through  England,  in  his  work  of  regulating  the  church,  by  a  monk 
named  Hadrian,  born  in  Africa  but  brought  up  in  the  south  of 
Italy,  where  Greek  was  still  spoken.  Both  therefore  spoke  Greek 
and  encouraged  its  study.  A  school  was  started  at  Canterbury 
in  connection  with  the  church  there,  and  somewhat  later  a  similar 
one  at  York,  while  in  most  of  the  monasteries  pupils  were  regu- 
larly taught  to  read  and  write  English.  The  elements  of  Latin 
instruction,  as  well  as  the  services  of  the  church,  were  taught  in  a 
number  of  cathedral  and  monastic  schools. 

There  came  to  be  a  considerable  amount  of  writing  of  a  more 
varied  kind,  partly  under  the  influence  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
literary  spirit,  partly  of  the  new  classical  learning.  Lives  of  saints, 
allegories,  narratives,  and  descriptions  of  natural  scenes  were  writ- 
ten in  prose  and  poetry,  in  Latin  and  in  English.  Of  some  church- 
men of  the  time,  noted  for  their  knowledge  and  their  ability  as 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND  53 

writers,  the  names  and  writings  have  come  down  to  our  own  times, 
but  there  were  also  lesser  poets  whose  names  and  songs  have  alike 
now  disappeared  but  whose  productions  then  gave  abundant  mate- 
rial to  the  gleemen  who  wandered  through  the  country,  singing 
their  ballads  in  halls  and  on  village  greens. 

The  most  famous  early  Saxon  writer  was  Baeda,  "  The  Venerable 
Bede,"  as  he  is  called.  He  was  a  monk  who  lived  his  whole  life 
in  the  monastery  of  Jarrow.  As  a  boy  he  was  taught  in  the  mon- 
astery school  and  afterwards  studied  the  books  which  had  been 
gathered  there,  and  became  familiar  with  most  of  the  knowledge 
then  available.  He  became  school  teacher  to  the  monks  and 
boys  in  the  monastery,  but  found  time  during  a  long  lifetime  to 
write  some  fifty- five  works  of  his  own.  He  wrote  text-books  and 
larger  works  in  Latin,  translated  one  or  two  Latin  works  into 
English,  and  composed  some  English  poetry.  He  was  the  first 
historian  of  the  English  people,  and  his  Ecclesiastical  History  of 
the  English  Nation  is  still  the  source  to  which  we  go  for  most  of 
our  knowledge  of  the  very  early  Anglo-Saxon  period.  He  died 
735  A.D.  Shortly  before  the  time  of  Bede  a  poet  had  become 
famous  in  the  Northumbrian  monastery  of  Whitby.  This  was 
Caedmon,  a  servant  of  the  abbey,  unlearned  but  gifted  with  poetic 
genius  and  impressed  with  the  picturesqueness  of  the  Bible  stories. 
These  he  paraphrased,  as  they  were  told  to  him,  in  English  verse  ; 
others  imitated  him  in  the  same  poetic  forms  and  subjects,  and 
thus  a  series  of  poems  reproducing  a  large  part  of  the  Bible  was 
constructed  and  became  well  known. 

38.  Internal  Strife  of  the  Kingdoms.  —  England  was  far  better 
organized  in  an  ecclesiastical  than  in  a  political  way.  Churchmen 
from  one  part  of  the  country  were  frequently  appointed  to  office 
in  another,  and  councils  attended  by  bishops  from  all  England 
were  held,  while  the  kingdoms  from  which  they  came  were  still 
in  constant  warfare  with  one  another.  These  were  the  kingdoms 
which  had  been  formed  in  the  early  years  of  the  conquest  and 
settlements.  Upon  the  conquests  of  the  natives  had  followed 


54  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

wars  among  the  invaders  themselves.  Civil  wars  also  occurred 
in  each  kingdom  between  rival  claimants  for  the  crown.  After 
the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  these  wars  were  more  system- 
atic, led  to  some  permanent  results,  and  brought  some  order  out 
of  the  chaos.  The  Northumbrians  in  the  north,  the  Mercians 
in  the  center,  and  the  West  Saxons  in  the  south  of  the  country, 
the  three  kingdoms  which  had  room  for  expansion,  became  much 
more  powerful  than  any  of  the  other  kingdoms.  East  Anglia, 
Essex,1  Sussex,  and  Kent  were  ruled  by  under-kings  or  chieftains 
subordinate  to  the  ruler  of  one  or  other  of  the  three  great  king- 
doms, or  were  simply  added  to  their  dominions.  There  were 
instances  of  revolts  of  these  dependent  kings,  but  most  of  the 
contests  from  this  time  forward  were  between  the  Northumbrians, 
the  Mercians,  and  the  West  Saxons. 

39.  Northumbria.  —  During  the  first  half  of  the  seventh  century 
Northumbria  was  decidedly  the  most  powerful  state  in  England. 
Its  kings  gained  repeated  victories  over  the  countries  farther  south 
and  even  at  times  held  rule  over  almost  all  of  England,  as  well 
as  over  what  are  now  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland.     The  city  of 
Edinburgh  or  "  Edwin's  burgh  "  marks  the  northern  limits  of  the 
power  of  Edwin,  the   first  Christian  king  of  Northumbria,  who 
reigned  from  617  to  633,  while  later  Northumbrian  kings  reduced 
the  Picts,  the  northwestern  Britons,  and  the  Scots  to  dependence. 
Northumbria  was  also  the  leading  state  of  England  in  literature, 
learning,  and  trade.     A  series  of  defeats  near  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  however,  made  its  permanent  supremacy  in  the 
central  and  southern  parts  of  England  hopeless. 

40.  Mercia.  —  Mercia    then    became    more   prominent.     The 
kings  of  this  country  had  a  series  of  contests  with  the  native 
Britons  of  Wales  which  resulted  in  forcing  the  latter  to  become 
tributary.     Other  wars  occurred  with  the  West  Saxons   to  the 
southward.    During  the  eighth  century,  especially  under  ^Ethelbald 

1  The  territorial  terms  Essex,  Sussex,  Middlesex,  and  Wessex  gradually 
took  the  place  of  the  tribal  names  East  Saxons,  etc. 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND 


55 


The  Anglo-Saxon  Kingdoms  and  the  Three  Native  Principalities 


56  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  Offa,  whose  reigns  together  covered  the  period  from  716  to 
796,  Mercia  was  in  her  turn  the  most  powerful  state  in  England 
and  held  all  the  districts  to  the  eastward  and  southwestward, 
including  London  and  Kent.  The  Mercian  kings  issued  a  spe- 
cially good  coinage  and  seem  to  have  paid  much  attention  to 
the  growth  of  trade.  A  separate  archbishopric  was  for  a  while 
created  at  Lichfield,  and  the  Mercian  king  had  some  intercourse 
with  Charles  the  Gr-eat  and  other  kings  on  the  continent,  and 
with  the  pope.  Several  of  the  Mercian  kings  abdicated  the  throne, 
as  had  those  of  Northumbria,  and  went  on  pilgrimages  to  Rome, 
or  retired  to  English  monasteries.  Notwithstanding  their  good 
fortune  in  war,  the  Mercians  were  never  successful  in  completely 
conquering  either  the  Northumbrians  or  the  West  Saxons,  and 
there  were  frequent  revolts  of  the  Kentishmen  and  East  Anglians. 
In  796,  Offa,  the  last  of  the  great  Mercian  kings,  died,  and  the 
kingdom  soon  lost  its  greatness  and  eventually  its  independence. 
41.  West  Saxon  Overlordship.  — The  West  Saxons  had  by  con- 
quests gradually  built  up  an  extensive  kingdom  to  the  north, 
east,  and  west  of  their  original  capital  at  Winchester.  In  wars 
waged  sometimes  with  the  natives  on  the  north  and  west  and 
sometimes  with  the  Angles  of  Mercia,  the  South  and  East  Saxons, 
and  the  Kentishmen,  they  kept  up  their  fighting  habits  and  suc- 
cessfully resisted  conquest  by  the  Northumbrians  and  Mercians. 
Descendants  of  Cerdic,  the  first  king,  always  ruled  in  Wessex, 
but  there  were  many  contests  within  the  family  for  the  crown. 
In  one  of  these  disputes  Egbert,1  a  prince  of  the  royal  family, 
was  exiled,  and,  according  to  the  custom  of- the  time,  took  refuge 
at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Great,  king  of  the  Franks.  After 
remaining  there  for  thirteen  years  and  doubtless  seeing  much 
of  Charles's  warlike  and  statesmanlike  policy,  he  was  recalled  to 
be  king  of  the  West  Saxons  in  802.  Within  the  next  few  years 
he  had  completed  the  conquest  of  the  natives  of  the  west,  adding 
what  are  now  Devonshire  and  Cornwall  to  his  dominions.  He 
1  The  Anglo-Saxon  form  of  this  name  is  Ecgberht. 


ENGLAND 

divided  into  Bishoprics 


EARLY   SAXON   ENGLAND  57 

then  entered  into  a  contest  with  Mercia  and  the  states  dependent 
upon  it,  defeating  them  and  making  them  all  acknowledge  his 
supremacy.  Finally,  in  830,  he  took  an  army  to  the  borders  of 
Northumbria,  where  the  king  of  that  country  came  to  meet  him 
and  agreed  to  accept  Egbert's  overlordship.  In  the  same  year  he 
forced  submission  upon  the  chieftains  of  Wales.  Thus  for  the  first 
time  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  all  Britain  acknowledged, 
in  name  at  least  and  for  the  time,  the  supremacy  of  one  ruler. 

42.  Summary  of  the  Early  Saxon  Period.  — The  year  449,  the 
traditional  date  of  the  arrival  of  the  first  Teutonic  settlers,  mythi- 
cal as  in  all  probability  that  date  is,  represents  the  most  important 
event  in  the  history  of  the  English  nation,  the  entrance  of  its 
founders  into  Britain.  The  new  race,  although  barbarous,  had 
in  it  elements  which  the  old  Roman  civilization  had  lacked  :  it 
was  vigorous,  independent,  and  self-reliant ;  families  of  this  race 
were  larger,  and  therefore  population  would  increase ;  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  people  had  influence  on  the  government  and 
the  law,  and  these  were  therefore  more  suited  to  popular  needs. 
Slight  as  their  economic,  political,  and  social  development  was, 
they  proved  to  be  a  race  capable  of  great  progress  in  the  sur- 
roundings which  their  new  island  home  furnished  to  them.  The 
arrival  of  Augustine  in  597  represents  the  first  great  step  of  this 
progress,  —  the  conversion  of  the  English  to  Christianity,  their 
organization  as  one  united  church  body,  and  their  connection  by 
this  means  with  the  continent,  where  the  remains  of  ancient  civili- 
zation were  better  preserved  and  society  was  more  advanced. 
The  attainment  of  a  general  overlordship  of  England  by  Egbert 
in  830  was  not  the  creation  of  a  real  nation  but  it  was  a  prepara- 
tion for  it.  Several  of  the  separate  kingdoms  still  went  on,  fre- 
quently with  kings  who  were  practically  independent,  and  there 
was  probably  little  or  no  national  feeling.  Nevertheless  the  kings 
of  the  West  Saxon  royal  family  never  afterwards  gave  up  their 
claim  to  be  the  rulers  of  all  England,  and  thus  a  center  existed 
around  which  national  union  was  afterward  built  up. 


58  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

General  Reading.  —  GREEN  has  three  works'covering  this  period :  his 
Short  History  of  the  English  People,  chap,  i,  sects.  1-4 ;  History  of  the 
English  People,  chaps,  i  and  ii,  and  The  Making  of  England.  The  last  of 
these  is  the  most  complete,  and  occupies  a  whole  volume.  The  first  con- 
tains almost  as  much  as  the  second  and  will  be  referred  to  as  preferable  and 
recommended  for  this  and  all  the  succeeding  chapters  except  the  last  two. 
A  much  more  accurate  though  not  so  vivid  account  is  RAMSAY,  Foundations 
of  England,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  ix-xiii.  GRANT  ALLEN,  Anglo-Saxon  Britain,  is 
an  excellent  short  book  on  the  period.  The  Anglo-Saxon  church  is  well 
described  in  WAKEMAN,  History  of  the  Church  of  England. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  TACITUS,  Germania,  includes  a  description 
of  the  customs  of  the  Germans  from  whom  the  Anglo-Saxons  sprang,  and 
gives  some  idea  of  the  condition  of  the  new  race  before  they  entered  Britain. 
Extracts  are  given  in  COLBY,  No.  4,  and  KENDALL,  No.  2.  The  most 
valuable  and  interesting  contemporary  record  of  the  whole  Saxon  period  is 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle ;  but  for  the  conversion  to  Christianity  and  a 
number  of  other  parts  of  the  early  history,  BEDE,  Ecclesiastical  History,  is 
most  valuable.  Some  of  the  most  interesting  sections  in  the  latter  are 
Book  I,  chaps,  vii,  xii,  xxv,  xxvi ;  Book  II,  chaps,  i,  ii,  ix,  xii,  xiii,  xvi ; 
Book  III,  chaps,  v,  vi,  ix-xii,  xvii,  xxv ;  Book  IV,  chaps,  iii,  xviii,  xix,  xxiv, 
xxviii-xxxii.  Both  the  Chronicle  and  Bede  are  translated  and  published  in 
one  volume  in  the  Bohn  series  under  the  name  of  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory. Extracts  are  given  in  LEE,  Nos.  22-24 ;  COLBY,  Nos.  5  and  6 ;  and 
KENDALL,  Nos.  3  and  4.  COOK  and  TINKER,  Select  Translations  from 
Old  English  Poetry,  contains  good  examples  of  the  poetry  of  this  period. 

Poetry. — ALEXANDER  SMITH,  Edwin  of  Deira.  The  romances  of 
Arthur  and  his  knights  seem  to  refer  to  the  period  of  the  contest  between 
the  Britons  and  the  West-Saxon  invaders,  but  in  the  only  forms  in  which 
they  can  now  be  found  they  are  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  later  mediaeval 
romance,  as  in  MALORY,  Morte  Darthur,  or  with  modern  ideals,  as  in 
TENNYSON,  Idylls  of  the  King. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Conversion  of  Edwin,  BEDE,  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory, Book  II,  chap,  xii ;  (2)  Synod  of  Whitby,  ibid.,  Book  III,  chap,  xxv ; 
(3)  Csedmon,  ibid.,  Book  IV,  chap,  xxiv ;  (4)  Beowulf,  COOK  and  TINKER, 
Translations  from  Old  English  Poetry,  9-24 ;  (5)  Venerable  Bede,  GREEN, 
Short  History,  chap,  i,  sect.  4 ;  (6)  Classes  of  People  among  the  Early 
Anglo-Saxons,  TRAILL,  Vol.  I,  pp.  122-129;  (?)  Heathen  Religion  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  ibid.,  149-153;  (8)  Establishment  of  Christianity,  ibid.,  153- 
161 ;  (9)  Dress  and  Amusements  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  ibid.,  222-227. 


CHAPTER  V 


LATER  SAXON  ENGLAND.     830-975 


43.  The  Incursions  of  the  Danes. — The  supremacy  obtained 
by  Egbert,  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  as  has  been  said,  was  not 
a  real  union  of  England.  No  measures  were  taken  to  unite  the 
whole  country  under  a  government  exercising  its  power  from 
Winchester,  the  West  Saxon  capital.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
West  Saxon  kings  had  now  to  enter  into  a  struggle  to  retain  any 
of  their  dominions,  for  new  invaders  and  settlers  were 
making  their  way  into  England,  threatening  to  overwhelm 
the  English  much  as  the 
latter  had  overwhelmed 
the  Britons  three  cen- 
turies before. 

Just  at  the  close  of 

the  eighth  century,  while 

.,  Remains  of  a  Danish  Ship 

Egbert  had  been  in  exile 

at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Great,  these  new  enemies  began 
to  ravage  the  shores  of  the  British  Isles  and  of  the  continent. 
They  were  known  among  themselves  as  "Vikings,"  in  England 
generally  as  "  Danes,"  in  Ireland  as  "  Ostmen,"  and  on  the  con- 
tinent as  "  Northmen."  They  came  from  the  shores  of  Sweden, 
Norway,  and  Denmark,  in  boats  carrying  thirty  or  forty  men  each, 
built  shallow  though  long,  and  thus  capable  of  being  rowed  far 
up  the  rivers.  Thus  they  landed  at  entirely  unexpected  places. 
Since  they  were  heathen  they  did  not  hesitate  to  plunder  mon- 
asteries and  nunneries,  whose  gold  and  silver  ornaments,  jeweled 
robes  and  utensils,  numerous  flocks  of  sheep  and  undefended 
crops  of  grain  furnished  them  abundant  booty. 

59 


60  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  progress  of  civilization  had  also  produced  much  in  the 
possession  of  the  people  of  country  and  town  that  was  attractive 
to  these  barbarians.  So  not  only  monasteries  but  towns  and  whole 
stretches  of  country  were  devastated.  In  addition  to  seizing  what 
they  could  carry  away  they  inflicted  terrible  cruelties  upon  those 
who  fell  into  their  power,  and  made  havoc  with  fire  and  sword 
for  the  pure  love  of  destruction.  The  lands  along  the  coasts  and 
rivers  of  France  and  Spain  suffered  grievously  from  these  ravages, 
but  England  was  still  more  unfortunate,  since  her  territory  was 
open  to  the  sea  rovers  on  all  sides.  The  first  recorded  attack  on 
England  was  in  the  year  787  A.D.  A  few  years  later  the  "  pirates  " 
came  again,  plundered  the  monastery  of  Lindisfarne,  and  mur- 
dered its  monks ;  then  they  appeared  again  and  again,  till  scarcely 
a  year  passed  without  visitations  on  some  part  or  other  of  the  coast 
and  even  far  inland.  The  Chronicle  tells  how  "  Herebehrt  the 
ealdorman  was  slain  by  the  heathen  men,  and  many  of  the  Fen- 
men  with  him ;  and  afterwards,  the  same  year,  in  Lindsey,  and  in 
East  Anglia,  and  in  Kent  many  men  were  slain  by  the  enemy." 
And  again :  "  This  year  King  ^Ethelwulf  fought  at  Charmouth 
against  the  crews  of  ninety-five  ships,  and  the  Danish-men  main- 
tained possession  of  the  field." 

The  English  seemed  unable  to  drive  them  away.  A  united 
resistance  could  seldom  be  made  to  invaders  who  appeared  so 
suddenly  and  in  such  unexpected  places.  The  ealdorman  or 
local  chieftain  could  call  out  the  men  of  his  part  of  the  country 
to  fight  in  a  body  known  as  the  "  fyrd,"  and  generally  this  local 
force  was  all  that  there  was  to  oppose  the  pillagers.  But  even 
when  a  body  of  Danish  plunderers  was  opposed  by  the  king  with 
a  more  considerable  army  the  invaders  were  apt  to  be  more  than 
a  match  for  the  English.  They  used  great  battle-axes  which  were 
more  effective  than  the  spears  and  swords  of  the  English;  all 
their  warriors  were  protected  by  coats  of  linked  mail  and  helmets, 
while  these  were  used  only  by  a  few  of  the  leaders  among  the 
English ;  and  they  fought  with  a  fierce  recklessness  which  was 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  6l 

almost  irresistible.  "  The  Danes  had  possession  of  the  field  " 
closes  up  many  an  entry  in  the  Chronicle  during  this  period. 

44.  The  Danish  Army.  —  Soon  another  stage  of  invasion  was 
entered  upon  by  the  Danes.  Large  bands  began  to  make  their 
headquarters  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  remaining  perma- 
nently in  England  and  living  by  ravaging.  These  bodies  of  plun- 
derers drew  together  till  they  formed  a  united  body,  —  "the 
army,"  as  the  English  called  it,  —  which  in  successive  summers 
made  long  forays  through  Kent,  East  Anglia,  Northumbria,  Mercia, 
and  Wessex,  and  in  the  winters  settled 
down  to  enjoy  their  booty.  Their  usual 
plan  was  to  row  up  some  river  or  deep 
harbor,  fortify  a  camp  by  throwing  a  dike 
across  a  headland  or  other  favorable  spot, 
drag  their  boats  on  the  shore,  seize  horses 
where  they  could  find  them,  and  sweep 
pillaging  across  the  country,  till  the  slowly 
gathering  fyrd  under  the  ealdorman  of 
the  district  became  dangerous,  or  till 
rumors  came  of  an  army  marching,  to  Danish  Battle-Axe  (length, 
meet  them.  Then  they  retired  to  their  15  inches;  weight, 

camp  and  if  necessary  soon  rowed  away 

to  a  new  landing  place.  We  hear  how  in  East  Anglia  "King 
Edmund  fought  against  them,  but  the  Danes  got  the  victory  and 
slew  the  king  and  subdued  all  the  land  and  destroyed  all  the 
churches  they  came  to.  They  came  to  Medeshamstead  and 
burned  and  beat  it  down,  and  slew  the  abbot  and  monks  and  all 
that  they  found  there.  And  that  place  which  before  was  full  rich 
they  reduced  to  nothing."  The  heathen  army  became  constantly 
more  numerous  and  more  bold,  till  most  of  England  lay  at  its 
mercy.  One  part  of  the  country  after  another  was  laid  under 
contribution  for  its  support  or  was  swept  clear  of  everything 
which  the  invaders  wanted.  The  monasteries  were  destroyed ; 
villages  burned ;  London,  Canterbury,  Rochester,  Winchester, 


62  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

York,  and  other  old  towns  sacked,  and  the  rising  prosperity  and 
culture  of  the  country  crushed. 

45.  Formation  of  the  Danelaw.  —  Little  by  little  the  Danish 
invasion  entered  upon  a  third  stage,  —  that  of  settlement.  A 
Danish  half  of  England  grew  up.  The  "army"  had  spent  most 
of  its  time  in  East  Anglia,  eastern  Mercia,  and  southern  North- 
umbria.  In  these  portions  of  the  country  the  old  lines  of  kings 
had  died  out  and  Danish  kings  or  "  jarls  "  1  held  the  mastery  over 
the  people.  The  native  English  population  was  already  doubt- 
less much  reduced,  and  the  less  restless  spirits  among  the  Danes 
settled  down  among  them,  seizing  lands  where  they  wished  them, 
even  while  those  who  wished  still  to  plunder  continued  their  raids 
through  the  parts  of  the  country  still  unravaged.  The  same 
Danish  warriors  who  had  joined  in  plundering  forays  or  followed 
their  king  as  fighting  men  in  the  great  army,  when  they  found 
such  occupation  too  dangerous,  distasteful  or  unprofitable,  settled 
down  as  farmers  or  embarked  on  trading  ventures.  New  settlers 
came  from  Denmark  and  Norway  to  settle  in  the  parts  of  Eng- 
land which  were  under  the  rule  of  Danish  kings  and  chieftains. 

The  extent  of  this  immigration  and  settlement  can  be  traced 
by  the  Danish  names  of  places,  which  were  either  new  settlements 
or  old  English  towns  and  villages  renamed  by  their  new  inhabit- 
ants and  rulers.  Whereas  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  districts  names  of 
villages  and  towns  usually  end  in  ton  or  ham,  in  the  districts  occu- 
pied by  the  Danes  or  Northmen  they  end  more  commonly  in  by 
or  thorpe.  Gradually  the  whole  east  and  much  of  the  north  came 
to  be  more  Danish  than  English  in  population,  in  customs,  and 
in  law.  It  was  even  acknowledged  by  the  West  Saxon  kings  to  be 
independent.  In  the  unending  struggle  on  their  part  to  protect 
Wessex  from  Danish  plundering  they  were  so  hard  pressed  that 
they  were  glad  to  purchase  temporary  immunity  for  the  west  and 

1  The  Danish  word  jarl,  pronounced  yarl,  corresponded  to  the  English 
word  ealdorman,  and  later  gave  rise  to  the  word  earl,  the  ruler  under  the 
king  of  a  division  of  the  country. 


2          from      Greenwich 

THE  X>AKELAW. 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  63 

south  by  yielding  to  the  Danes  the  north  and  east.  In  886  A.D. 
an  agreement  was  entered  into  between  Alfred,  the  West  Saxon 
king,  and  Guthrum,  a  Danish  king,  defining  the  boundaries  between 
them  as  follows :  "  First,  concerning  the  land  boundaries  :  upon 
the  Thames,  and  then  up  on  the  Lea,  and  along  the  Lea  to  its 
source,  then  right  to  Bedford,  then  up  on  the  Ouse  to  Watling 
street." l  According  to  this  treaty  England  was  practically  divided 
into  two  parts,  one  under  the  Danes  and  one  under  the  West 
Saxon  kings.  Because  all  matters  were  settled  by  Danish  law  in 
the  former  district  it  came  to  be  known  as  the  "  Danelaw." 

46.  The  Danes  as  Traders.  —  The  Danelaw  differed  in  many 
respects  from  the  more  purely  Anglo-Saxon  parts  of  England. 
Men  of  this  section  even  yet  are  taller  and  lighter  in  complexion 
than  the  average  of  the  rest  of  the  country,  and  it  is  generally 
believed  that  this  is  due  to  the  Danish  mixture  in  the  population. 
The  most  marked  change  introduced  by  the  Danes  was  the  habit 
of  trading  with  foreign  lands  and  the  consequent  growth  of  towns 
in  England  as  centers  at  which  trade  was  carried  on.  In  Nor- 
way, Denmark,  and.  Sweden  there  was  an  active  trade  with  Ireland 
and  Iceland,  with  the  coast  lands  of  the  Baltic  Sea,  and  with  dis- 
tant regions  to  the  southward.  Even  yet  Arabic  coins  are  found 
in  the  Scandinavian  countries,  where  fairs  were  held  to  which 
merchants  came  from  various  parts  of  Europe  and  the  East. 
Danish  traders  from  England  took  part  in  all  the  lines  of  com- 
merce of  which  they  had  known  before  they  came  to  England. 

At  places  where  traders  gathered  and  lived,  new  towns  grew 
up.     Old  towns,  which  may  have  survived  from  Roman  times,  — 
though  reduced  to  almost  nothing  in  population  and  wealth  in 

1  This  agreement  is  commonly  known  as  the  "  Treaty  of  Wedmore," 
though  it  did  not  take  place  there.  What  really  occurred  at  Wedmore 
took  place  eight  years  before,  when  Guthrum  made  a  temporary  peace  with 
Alfred,  was  entertained  by  him,  and  was  baptized  as  a  Christian,  together 
with  thirty  of  his  followers.  It  is  also  known  as  the  "  Treaty  of  Chippen- 
ham,"  but  with  no  more  propriety,  as  it  is  not  known  where  this  agreement 
was  drawn  up. 


64  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  meantime, — were  revived,  gained  inhabitants,  and  adopted 
modes  of  life  which  were  very  different  from  those  of  the  country 
villages.  The  "  Five  Boroughs  "  was  a  name  given  to  Stamford, 
Leicester,  Derby,  Nottingham,  and  Lincoln,  five  towns  under 
Danish  control,  each  of  which  had  a  government  of  its  own  with 
special  town  courts  and  laws,  but  forming  a  sort  of  confederacy 
among  themselves.  York,  Chester,  and  other  old  towns  of  the 
north  became  more  prosperous,  seaport  towns  grew  up  along  the 
coast,  and  London  itself  regained  its  old  trading  life  and  was 
occupied  by  a  population  a  large  part  of  whom  were  Danes. 

Gradually  the  Christian  population  among  whom  they  had 
settled  drew  the  Danish  invaders  from  their  heathenism,  larger 
numbers  of  them  betook  themselves  to  peaceful  occupations, 
and  distant  raids  attracted  those  devoted  to  warfare  to  France, 
Spain,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  The  old  bishoprics  were  reestab- 
lished, and  some  of  the  monasteries  rebuilt.  Wars  between  the 
rulers  of  the  Danelaw  and  the  West  Saxon  kings  occurred  from 
time  to  time,  but  they  were  wars,  not  mere  plundering  raids. 

47.  King  Alfred.  —  The  turning  back  of  the  tide  of  Danish 
conquest,  the  restriction  of  Danish  rulers  and  settlers  to  the  east- 
ern half  of  the  country,  and  the  reorganization  of  the  West  Saxon 
monarchy  within  its  narrower  limits  were  largely  the  work  of  the 
West  Saxon  king,  Alfred.1  Alfred  has  been  loved  by  all  subse- 
quent generations  because  of  his  personal  character,  and  admired 
and  respected  because  of  his  abilities  and  of  the  work  that  he 
accomplished.  He  was  the  youngest  son  of  King  Ethelwulf  of 
Wessex  and  grandson  of  Egbert.  He  was  born  in  Wantage  about 
842  A.D.  and  died  about  900  A.D.  He  was  taken  to  Rome  twice  in 
his  early  boyhood,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  pope  then 
reigning  and  of  various  other  prominent  churchmen  and  rulers. 
He  was  of  weak  health,  though  he  was  devoted  to  hunting  and 
was  a  skillful  and  active  leader  in  war  through  his  whole  life. 
Nevertheless  his  inclinations  were  distinctly  intellectual.  A  story 
1  The  Anglo-Saxon  form  of  his  name  is  ^Elfred. 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  65 

has  come  down  of  a  promise  made  by  his  mother  to  her  five  sons 
to  give  a  certain  illuminated  manuscript  of  Saxon  poems  to  the 
one  who  would  first  commit  them  to  memory.  Alfred,  although 
the  youngest,  immediately  betook  himself  to  the  task  and  with  the 
help  of  his  teacher  learned  the  verses  and  obtained  the  prize.  His 
fondness  for  literature  and  eager  desire  for  knowledge  remained 
lifelong  characteristics. 

As  Alfred  grew  to  manhood  the  Danes  were  ravaging  not  only 
the  coast  lands  and  Mercia  but  the  West  Saxon  lands  also,  and 
soon  after  his  accession  to  the  throne  he  was  actually  forced  to 
abandon  the  struggle  temporarily  and  retire  to  the  forests,  leav- 
ing all  England  to  the  attacks  of  the  invaders.  But  this  was  the 
worst  of  the  storm.  Soon  the  spirit  of  the  West  Saxons  revived. 
In  a  chance  engagement  a  Danish  force  was  defeated  and  their 
famous  war  flag  called  "  The  Raven  "  was  captured.  Alfred  seized 
this  opportunity  to  come  down  from  the  moors  to  build  a  fort  and 
man  it  with  a  small  garrison  at  Athelney.  Then,  gathering  the 
fyrd  from  the  western  districts  about  him,  he  made  a  series  of 
attacks  upon  the  invaders.  Hard  fighting  forced  the  Danes  in 
878  to  enter  into  an  agreement  with  Alfred  by  which  the  Danish 
king  with  his  principal  followers  accepted  Christian  baptism  as 
a  sign  of  their  intention  to  cease  plundering.  This  was  at  Wed- 
more,  as  already  described,  and  was  followed  a  few  years  after- 
wards by  the  Treaty  of  Wedmore,  which  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  Danelaw.  The  peace  was  but  poorly  kept,  for  Guthrum  was 
only  one  of  several  Danish  rulers,  and  those  who  reigned  over 
other  districts  or  who  came  to  England  later  were  not  bound  by 
his  agreements.  So  fighting  by  no  means  came  to  an  end.  Yet 
Alfred  more  than  held  his  own  in  the  half  of  England  which  was 
under  his  control,  and  every  Danish  invasion  of  it  was  repelled. 

48.  Military  Reforms.  —  It  was  in  these  later  contests  that 
Alfred's  originality  in  military  devices  showed  itself.  He  kept 
some  soldiers  under  arms  so  that  they  should  not  be  taken  off 
their  guard  ;  he  reorganized  the  fyrd  by  calling  out  only  one  half 


66  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

of  the  fighting  men  at  a  time,  so  that  the  cultivation  of  the  fields 
might  not  come  to  a  standstill;  he  built  "burghs"  or  fortified 
camps,  where  soldiers  could  be  stationed  permanently ;  he  pro- 
vided for  the  fortification  and  guarding  of  the  towns  so  that  the 
invaders  could  be  held  in  check  till  the  fyrd  came  ;  and  built  and 
manned  vessels  so  that  he  might  meet  the  Danes  on  their  own 
element  and  deprive  them  of  their  old  unrestricted  freedom  of 
invasion  and  retreat  by  sea.  The  result  was  th,at  not  only  the 
south  and  west  of  England  were  more  securely  defended  but  that 
a  military  system  was  organized  which  was  afterwards  used  to 
drive  the  Danes  out  of  the  Danelaw. 

49.  Reforms  in  Law.  — In  the  more  peaceful  years  of  Alfred's 
reign  he  devoted  the  same  energy,  originality,  and  broad-minded 
judgment  to  the  works  of  peace  that  he  had  applied  to  the  con- 
test with  the  invaders.  One  of  the  fruits  of  this  was  the  new 
body  of  laws  or  "  dooms  "  which  he  issued.  Written  collections  of 
laws  or  formal  statements  of  the  customary  law  on  certain  sub- 
jects had  been  already  drawn  up  and  promulgated  by  various 
kings,  with  the  agreement  of  the  "witan"  or  great  men  of  the 
country.  The  earliest  of  these  was  issued  by  Ethelbert,  king  of 
Kent,  about  the  time  of  Augustine,  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury. Other  collections  had  been  issued  from  time  to  time  by 
Kentish,  Mercian,  and  West  Saxon  monarchs.  That  now  issued 
by  Alfred  was  gathered  principally  from  these  earlier  codes.  His 
work  consisted  in  laying  down  general  principles,  in  selecting  and 
restating  old  rules,  not  in  the  establishment  of  new  ones.  As  he 
declares  in  the  preface  to  his  laws,  "Those  things  which  I  met 
with,  either  of  the  days  of  Ine,  my  kinsman,  or  of  Offa,  king  of 
the  Mercians,  or  of  Ethelbert,  who  first  among  the  English  race 
received  baptism,  those  which  seemed  to  me  the  most  right,  those 
I  have  gathered  together,  and  rejected  the  others."  There  are 
many  provisions  in  these  laws  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  as, 
for  instance,  "  If  any  one  fight  in  the  king's  hall,  or  draw  his 
weapon,  and  he  be  taken,  it  shall  depend  on  the  doom  of  the 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  67 

king  whether  he  have  life  or  death  "  ;  or,  "  If  any  one  dig  a  water- 
pit,  or  open  one  that  is  shut  up  and  close  it  not  again ;  let  him 
pay  for  whatever  cattle  may  fall  therein."  But  most  of  the  clauses 
declare  the  forms  of  punishment  and  the  amounts  of  fines  for 
criminal  offenses. 

50.  The  New  Literature.  —  Probably  the  most  conspicuous  work 
done  by  Alfred  was  the  reestablishment  of  education  and  litera- 
ture after  their  decay  during  the  ravages  of  the  Danes.  The  old 
literary  and  learned  life  of  the  northern  monasteries  represented 
by  Bede  and  Caedmon  had  disappeared.  Alfred  made  a  new  cen- 
ter for  learning  and  literature  at  his  capital  of  Winchester,  infused 
new  life  into  them,  and  himself  set  the  fashion  of  writing  prose 
works  in  English.  For  even  in  Wessex,  where  the  marauding 
of  the  Danes  had  not  been  long  continued,  and  still  more  so 
further  east  and  north,  ignorance  and  loss  of  interest  in  intellectual 
matters  were  almost  complete.  Alfred  himself  declared,  "  So  clean 
was  learning  decayed  among  English  folk  that  very  few  were 
there  on  this  side  of  the  Humber  that  could  understand  their 
service  books  in  English  or  translate  aught  out  of  Latin  into  Eng- 
lish, and  I  think  there  were  not  many  beyond  the  Humber.  So 
few  of  them  were  there  that  I  cannot  bethink  me  of  even  one 
when  I  came  to  the  kingdom."  He  says  again,  "  In  old  times 
men  came  hither  from  foreign  lands  to  seek  for  instruction,  and 
now  if  we  are  to  have  it,  we  can  only  get  it  from  abroad."  So 
he  was  compelled  to  draw  learned  men  into  Wessex  by  appoint- 
ing them  to  positions  as  abbots  and  bishops  or  about  his  court. 
From  the  western  districts  of  Mercia,  from  Wales,  France,  and 
Germany,  Alfred  gathered,  one  by  one,  a  group  of  learned  men 
as  teachers  and  churchmen.  He  established  three  new  abbeys, 
and  helped  some  of  those  which  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
Danes  to  regain  their  prosperity. 

He  also  set  up  a  school  for  young  nobles  and  others  of  well- 
to-do  parentage  in  his  own  court,  where  they  were  taught  to  read 
English  and,  if  they  went  on  far  enough,  Latin.  Here  English 


68  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

poems  as  well  as  more  serious  books  were  learned  and  the  old 
heathen  and  early  Christian  poetry  translated  into  the  West 
Saxon  dialect,  in  which  we  now  have  them.  It  is  probable 
that  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  the  most  important  source  of 
information  about  early  English  history,  was  put  into  form  at  this 
time.  Old  annals  which  have  since  disappeared  may  have  been 
used,  Bede  was  drawn  upon,  and  the  results  put  together  into 
an  English  chronicle.  This  was  subsequently  kept  up  as  a  con- 
temporary record,  according  to  Alfred's  instructions. 

The  king  himself  after  he  grew  to  middle  life  learned  to  read 
Latin,  and  translated  several  books  into  English  with  the  object 
of  making  them  more  accessible.  -He  expanded  these  and  intro- 
duced into  them  a  number  of  additions  from  his  own  experience 
or  from  other  sources.  He  says,  "  When  I  remember  how  the 
knowledge  of  Latin  had  formerly  decayed  throughout  England, 
and  yet  that  many  could  read  English  writing,  then  I  began  among 
other  various  and  manifold  occupations  of  this  kingdom  to  translate 
into  English."  He  translated  and  reedited  in  this  way  Gregory's 
Pastoral  Care,  Orosius's  History  of  the  World,  and  some  other 
works.  He  apologizes  for  the  crudity  of  his  work  by  saying,  "  Do 
not  blame  me,  if  any  know  Latin  better  than  I,  for  every  man  must 
say  what  he  says  and  do  what  he  does  according  to  his  ability."  He 
had  no  need  to  make  excuses,  for  his  style  is  clear  and  vigorous, 
and  he  left  a  model  of  good  English  prose  writing  which  afterwards 
bore  fruit  in  much  writing  in  the  language  of  the  people. 

51.  Alfred's  Interests  and  Character.  —  Alfred  took  a  keen 
interest  in  affairs  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  country,  though 
his  active  life  gave  him  no  chance  of  leaving  England  after  he 
became  king.  Still  he  sent  representatives  with  gifts  and  mes- 
sages to  Rome  and  to  other  distant  lands,  encouraged  foreign  trad- 
ers to  bring  their  wares  to  England,  and  engaged  Frisians  to  man 
his  newly  built  ships  and  to  teach  seamanship  to  his  people. 

The  strong  impression  which  King  Alfred  has  left  on  later  times 
is  as  much  the  result  of  what  he  was  as  of  what  he  did.  Everything 


lnr  Sdrqcttn  qomott 


cnnr 


ipu 


ai- 


.  «m-tm- 


non.  Sepremfenab!?e[ilit  afeKi^^epe 

^i- 


cyntt^ 


.  oti-vtut 


-fe  . 


^ 


inm 

J* 


berpicen  "p 


^m 


The  Years  786-790  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 


<> 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  69 

that  is  known  about  him  shows  him  as  singularly  lovable.  He  had 
the  highest  ideals  of  his  duties  and  opportunities  as  king,  and  seems 
to  have  carried  them  out  with  a  combined  ability  and  devotion 
almost  unknown  among  rulers.  Notwithstanding  his  position,  his 
gifts,  and  his  success,  he  was  exceedingly  simple-minded,  sincere, 
and  devout.  In  all  the  records  of  him  that  exist  there  is  not  a  single 
statement  that  puts  a  blemish  upon  his  great  and  good  character. 

52.  Closer  Union  of  England. — The  work  and  the  personality 
of  Alfred  resulted  not  only  in  saving  and  reestablishing  the  West 
Saxon  monarchy  but  in  preparing  the  way  for  a  more  complete 
union  of  all  England  than  the  mere  overlordshtp   obtained  by 
Egbert.    Sussex  and  Kent  had  been  absorbed  into  the  West  Saxon 
kingdom  during  or  soon  after  the  time  of  Egbert.    On  the  expul- 
sion of  the  old  Mercian  royal  line  by  the  Danes  all  of  that  king- 
dom which  did  not  become  part  of  the  Danelaw  was  treated  by 
Alfred  as  part  of  his  own  dominions  and  placed  under  his  son- 
in-law  as  ealdorman.     The  common  body  of  laws,  drawn  from 
Kentish,  Mercian,  and  West  Saxon  codes  alike,  the  chronicle  of 
all  England,  the  new  literature,  the  united  military  operations, 
and   the   personal   influence   and   policy  of  Alfred  and  his  suc- 
cessors bound  all  these  parts  more  closely  together.    Although 
almost  one  half  of  England  was,  at  the  time  of  the  death  of 
Alfred,  still  under  the  rule  of  Danish  kings  and  jarls,  the  rest 
was  held  firmly  by  its  West  Saxon  kings  and  united  more  closely 
than  ever.     Events  soon  led  to  the  increase  of  their  dominions. 

53.  Winning   Back    of   the    Danelaw.  —  Notwithstanding  the 
several  periods  of  peace  obtained  by  Alfred  during  his  reign, 
at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  engaged  in  war  not  only  with 
new  Danish  invaders  but  with  the  rulers  of  the  Danelaw,  who 
gave  tnem   support.     This   contest   continued   under   Edward l 

1  The  Anglo-Saxon  form  of  his  name  is  Eadweard.  This  Edward,  the 
son  of  Alfred,  is  known  as  Edward  the  Elder.  His  reign  was  from  901 
to  924.  He  was  buried  beside  his  father  at  Winchester,  in  the  "  New 
Minster"  which  Alfred  had  begun  and  which  he  himself  finished. 


70  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  v'Ethelstan,  the  son  and  grandson  of  Alfred,  and  was  steadily 
favorable  to  the  English.  The  same  conflict  was  carried  on  by 
Alfred's  daughter  yEthelflsed,  the  "  Lady  of  the  Mercians,"  as 
she  was  called,  because  she  and  her  husband  Ethelred  had  been 
appointed  by  the  king  to  rule  English  Mercia.  The  English  lead- 
ers had  learned  the  Danish  methods  of  fighting  and  were  in  a 
position  to  use  them  more  effectually  than  the  Danes  themselves. 
The  result  of  the  wars  was  to  win  for  the  West  Saxon  kingdom 
the  Danelaw,  piece  by  piece.  The  Danish  kings  who  ruled  over 
old  East  Anglia,  Essex,  and  York,  the  jarls  who  ruled  under  them, 
and  those  who  held  the  district  of  the  Five  Boroughs  were,  in 
the  course  of  time,  one  after  another  defeated  and  driven  into 
exile  and  their  dominions  added  to  those  of  the  English  king. 
The  difficulty  in  reuniting  them  was  slight.  The  Danish  popula- 
tion was  not  disturbed,  except  those  who  were  killed  in  battle, 
and  no  distinction  was  made  between  the  two  races.  Nobles  of 
Danish  blood  came  to  the  meetings  of  the  great  men  of  the  coun- 
try called  by  the  English  kings,  and  Danes  were  made  priests, 
bishops,  or  abbots  on  the  same  footing  as  Englishmen. 

The  rule  of  the  West  Saxon  kings  was  extended  during  the 
same  period  not  only  over  all  the  lands  which  had  ever  been 
settled  and  ruled  by  Angles,  Jutes,  and  Saxons,  but  over  the  old 
native  kingdoms  to  the  west  and  north.  From  time  to  time, 
compelled  by  invasion  or  by  the  threat  of  it,  or  induced  by  good 
policy,  some  of  the  Celtic  princes  would  make  more  or  less  com- 
plete submission  to  the  English  king.  In  926  ^thelstan  was 
acknowledged  as  their  superior  king  by  Howel  and  Owen,  kings 
of  the  two  divisions  of  Wales,  by  the  king  of  Cumbria  or  Strath- 
clyde,  and  by  the  king  of  the  Scots,  who  by  this  time  ruled  most 
of  what  we  now  know  as  Scotland.  There  was  always  after  this 
time  a  real  though  often  neglected  claim  on  the  part  of  the  Eng- 
lish kings  to  rule  over  the  whole  island  of  Britain.  This  was  indi- 
cated by  the  form  of  the  titles  used  by  them.  Alfred,  like  his 
predecessors,  had  only  called  himself  "King  of  the  West  Saxons," 


LATER  SAXON   ENGLAND  71 

until  late  in  his  reign,  when  he  seems  to  have  adopted  the  title 
"King  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,"  which  was  used  also  by  his  son 
Edward.  ^Ethelstan  in  his  documents  added  the  title  "  Ruler  of 
all  Britain"  to  the  older  title,  and  some  such  title  was  used  by 
all  his  successors. 

54.  Rural  Life  in  England  in  the  Tenth  Century.  — The  reign  of 
Alfred  and  the  seventy- five  years  which  followed  were  a  period 
in  which  almost  everything  which  was  characteristic  of  later  Saxon 
England  was  rapidly  taking  shape.  By  the  time  of  Edgar l  the 
"Peaceful,"  his  great-grandson,  who 
reigned  from  957  to  975,  the  race, 
language,  religion,  customs,  form  of 
government,  and  divisions  of  the 
country  were,  in  their  main  charac- 
teristics, what  they  were  long  to 

Com  of  King  Edgar,  957-975 
remain,  and  in  some  respects  what 

they  are  still.  The  foundations  of  the  nation  had  now  been  laid. 
What  these  foundations  were  will  be  described  in  the  remainder 
of  this  chapter,  which  refers  to  the  period  about  950  A.D. 

The  people,  generally  speaking,  lived  in  villages,  in  one-roomed 
cottages,  which  were  built  of  upright  poles,  laced  in  and  out  like 
basket  work  with  cross  poles,  the  cracks  being  filled  with  a  coat- 
ing of  mud  or  plaster  and  the  whole  thatched  with  straw.  The 
timber-built  dwelling  of  the  landowner  who  was  lord  over  the  vil- 
lage, or  perhaps  .sometimes  the  whole  village,  was  surrounded  by 
a  mound  and  ditch,  with  a  palisade  upon  it.  This  inclosed  hall  or 
village  was  called  a  tun.  The  group  of  villagers  were  spoken  of  as 
the  tunscip  or  township.  The  name  "town"  or  "township"  came 
later  to  be  applied  to  the  whole  village  with  the  lands  which 
stretched  around  it.  All  the  domestic  animals  and  familiar  grains 
were  known  and  raised,  though  the  cattle  were  very  small  and  the 
crops  raised  were  poor.  Agriculture  was  much  cruder  than  in 
Roman  times,  and  famines  were  frequent.  Swine  were  valued 

1  The  Anglo-Saxon  form  of  his  name  is  Eadgar. 


72  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

more  than  any  other  domestic  animals,  as  they  could  be  fed  from 
the  acorns  and  beechnuts  which  grew  in  the  forests  and  woods 
that  were  then  scattered  almost  everywhere  over  England.  One 
nobleman  in  his  will  bequeaths  two  thousand  swine,  and  another 
leaves  a  piece  of  land  to  the  church  on  condition  that  two  hun- 
dred swine  are  fed  upon  it  for  the  use  of  his  wife. 

Most  of  the  people  in  the  country  were  in  a  position  of  subor- 
dination to  the  thegns,  and  owed  to  them  payments,  services,  and 
support.  There  were  many  slaves,  some  being  born  bondsmen, 
others  captured  in  war  and  sold  into  slavery,  and  still  others 
reduced  to  slavery  for  debt  or  for  crime.  Slaves  were  often  freed 
by  will  as  a  pious  act. 

55.  Town  Life.  —  Although  the  great  mass  of  the  population 
were  country  dwellers,  occupying  these  rural  villages  or  hamlets, 
towns  were  beginning  to  spring  up  again  not  only  in  the  Danish 
districts  but  in  other  places.  By  the  middle  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury probably  some  fifty  or  sixty  places  had  come  to  have  a  much 
larger  population  than  the  ordinary  villages.  Such  a  borough 
or  city  had  a  market  and  some  trade,  a  wall,  several  churches, 
and  local  laws  or  customs  acknowledged  by  the  king.  It  was 
under  the  special  peace  of  the  king,  and  a  royal  officer  repre- 
sented him  in  it.  Yet  town  life  grew  up  but  slowly.  Much  of 
the  work  of  the  townsmen  was  still  expended  upon  the  land 
and  pasture  fields  outside  of  the  walls,  and  they  had  very  gen- 
erally to  perform  services  and  make  payments  to  the  king  or  to 
some  other  lord,  like  villagers.  More  varied  forms  of  industry, 
however,  were  growing  up  as  a  basis  for  town  life.  In  some 
places  fishing  furnished  not  only  food  for  the  fishermen  but,  in  the 
form  of  smoked  or  salt  fish,  provided  something  to  sell  to  traders, 
and  led  to  trade  with  other  parts  of  England  and  with  foreign 
countries.  This  was  the  origin  of  a  number  of  towns  on  the  coast. 
Other  places  were  favorably  situated  for  trade  because  they  were 
on  harbors  or  rivers,  or  were  centers  of  attraction  because  they 
were  the  location  of  monasteries  with  sacred  relics  to  which 


LATER   SAXON    ENGLAND  73 

pilgrimages  were  made.  Such  places  came  more  and  more  to  be 
occupied  by  men  who  made  most  or  all  of  their  living  by  buying 
and  selling,  or  by  handicrafts,  such  as  blacksmith's  work,  car- 
penter's work,  weaving,  shoemaking  and  other  work  in  leather, 
and  even  finer  work,  such  as  the  making  of  jewelry  and  musical 
instruments.  Thus  towns  grew  up  in  which  life  was  quite  differ- 
ent from  that  in  the  country  villages.  London  became  again,  as 
it  had  been  in  Roman  times,  and  as  it  was  always  afterwards 
to  remain,  the  principal  city  in  England,  quite  displacing  Win- 
chester, the  old  West  Saxon  capital,  from  its  position  of  relative 
importance.  In  several  of  the  towns  "  money ers  "  were  estab- 
lished, who  received  silver  from  the  king  and  coined  it  into  silver 
pennies,  which  remained  the  usual  form  of  money  for  many  cen- 
turies. On  most  of  the  coins  of  this  period  the  name  or  initial  of 
the  "  money er"  appears,  as  well  as  that  of  the  king. 

Instead,  therefore,  of  the  barbaric  life  of  the  early  destroyers  of 
the  civilization  of  Roman  Britain,  who  had  supported  themselves 
and  occupied  themselves  by  plundering,  hunting,  and  a  little  agri- 
culture, there  had  come  now  into  existence  much  more  varied 
forms  of  livelihood  and  a  much  more  civilized  type  of  life,  though 
it  was  still  poor,  rough,  and  coarse  compared  with  modern  life. 
Hunting  and  hawking  and  outdoor  trials  of  skill  served  as  the 
more  active  amusements  of  the  upper  classes,  while  the  tricks  of 
jugglers,  quiet  games,  such  as  draughts  or  checkers,  and  songs 
of  gleemen  or  minstrels,  gave  indoor  interest  when  the  chase  was 
impossible. 

56.  Poetry  in  the  Tenth  Century.  —  Religious  poetry  like  that 
of  Caedmon  was  still  written,  Bible  stories  serving  as  its  subjects. 
But  there  were  also  many  war  songs  and  ballads  on  subjects  of 
personal  interest.  The  English  as  a  nation  were  very  fond  of 
ballads  and  songs,  and  their  gleemen  made  and  sang  them  on  all 
occasions.  Most  of  these  of  course  have  disappeared,  but  some 
have  been  preserved  by  being  inserted  in  the  Chronicle.  One  of 
the  best  is  a  ballad  on  the  battle  of  Brunanburh,  fought  in  937 


74  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

between  King  ^Ethelstan  and  a  combined  army  of  Danes,  Scots, 
Picts,  and  Welsh.  It  begins  : 

yEthelstan  king, 
Of  earls  the  lord, 
Ring-giver  to  his  men; 
His  brother  with  him, 
Edmund  the  astheling, 
Gained  life-long  glory 
By  slaying  in  fight, 
With  the  edge  of  the  sword, 
At  Brunanburh. 

The  whole  poem  has  life,  spirit,  and  warlike  ring.  Another  of 
gentler  character  describes  the  death  of  Edgar  in  975  : 

Here  brought  to  an  end 

His  joys  on  earth 

Edgar  king  of  the  English  ; 

Chose  for  himself  another  light, 

Pleasant  and  beautiful, 

Left  this  frail 

This  transitory  life. 

Another  battle-poem  referring  to  a  fight  with  the  Danes  at  Mai- 
don  in  991,  and  describing  the  death  of  Earl  Byrhtnoth,  exists 
only  in  fragmentary  form,  its  beginning  and  end  both  being  lost, 
but  it  gives  a  fine  glimpse  of  the  life  and  ideas  of  the  time. 
When  the  sea  rovers  demand  tribute  the  old  ealdorman  answers 
their  messenger  as  follows  : 

Hear,  thou  Viking,  what  this  folk  say. 
Spear-points  they  will  give  for  tribute,     . 
Swords  of  old  time,  venomed  edges, 
Battle-gear  that  brings  no  profit ! 
Viking  herald,  take  the  message  ! 
Here  stand  I,  an  earl,  and  guarding 
With  my  host  our  fatherland. 

57.  Prose  Writing.  —  There  was  not  so  much  writing  in  prose 
as  in  poetry.  Still,  Alfred's  work  set  a  good  example.  Certain 
parts  of  the  Chronicle  were  written  with  fullness  and  skill,  and  in 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  75 

the  monasteries  religious  works  and  some  others  on  medical  and 
scientific  subjects  were  written  in  either  Latin  or  Anglo-Saxon. 
The  most  famous  of  the  monastic  writers  who  used  the  native  lan- 
guage was  ^Elfric,  who  lived  just  at  the  close  of  the  tenth  century, 
a  hundred  years  after  Alfred  and  three  hundred  after  Bede  and 
Csedmon.  He  was  a  monk  living  most  of  his  life  either  at  Win- 
chester or  at  Eynsham  near  Oxford,  where  he  became  abbot  of 
the  monastery.  He  wrote  voluminously  both  in  Latin  and  in 
Anglo-Saxon,  and  translated  many  things  from  Latin  into  the 
latter  language ;  among  them  a  Latin  grammar,  a  reading  book 
for  boys,  a  number  of  homilies  or  short  sermons  for  unlearned 
priests,  and  various  theological  works.  His  influence  led  to  more 
writing  in  Anglo-Saxon  by  a  number  of  less  important  writers. 
Most  of  the  Bible  was  translated  about  this  time  into  Anglo- 
Saxon,  some  of  its  books  being  translated  word  for  word,  others 
in  a  short  paraphrase  or  abridgment. 

58.  The  Old  English  Language.  —  Anglo-Saxon  or  Old  English 
was   thus   established    as   a  settled   literary  language,   of  which 
grammars  and  glossaries  were  prepared  for  the  use  of  students  at 
the  time,  and  in  which  there  was  a  considerable  body  of  familiar 
literature.    Its  similarity  to  modern  English  is  easily  recognizable, 
though  it  cannot  be  read  without  special  study  of  its  forms,  con- 
structions,  and  many  of  its  words.     As  an  example,  a  few  words 
from  the  Chronicle  under  the  year  1005  may  be  taken ;  a  state- 
ment that  might  unhappily  have  been  made  for  many  years. 

Her       on     thyssun     geare      waes       se  mycla  hunger  geond 

Here     in      this            year        was         so  great  famine  throughout 

Angel        cynn        swilce        nan      man  aer  ne  gemunde 

English     people     such  as     no        man  before  ever  remembered 
swa        grimme. 
so           severe. 

A  special  form  of  letters  was  generally  though  not  always  used. 

59.  Learning  and  the  Church.  — There  were  many  studious  and 
even  learned  men  in  the  monasteries,  except  at  times  of  the 


78  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

monasteries  and  bishoprics,  and  at  the  same  time  to  see  that  the 
religious  bodies  kept  themselves  in  order.  At  least  eighteen 
abbeys  were  established  directly  or  indirectly  by  his  influence. 
The  whole  monastic  revival  which  was  such  a  marked  feature  of 
the  tenth  century  owed  much  to  Dunstan.  After  his  death  Dun- 
stan  became  a  popular  hero  and  saint,  legendary  accounts  of  his 
life  were  written,  and  for  centuries  afterwards  numberless  tales 
about  him  were  told  among  the  people. 

61.  Political  Organization. — The  form  of  government  also  had 
by  this  time  become  definitely  established.    The  king  was  elected 
to  the  throne  by  the  nobles  and  great  churchmen  of  the  country. 
Although  the  form  of  election  was  always  gone  through  with,  it 
was  not  customary  to  go  outside  of  the  royal  family  in  choosing 
the  king,  and  the  choice  fell  as  a  matter  of  course  on  the  oldest 
grown-up  son  of  the  late  king,  if  there  was  one.     When  elected 
the  king  was  crowned  by  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  with  reli- 
gious ceremonies,  and  took  an  oath  to  rule  with  justice,  diligence, 
and  piety.     Many  of  the  forms  regularly  used  now  in  the  corona- 
tion service  have  come  down  almost  unchanged  from  the  time  of 
Edgar  or  even  before. 

62.  The  Witenagemot. — The  great  ealdormen,  royal  officers, 
bishops,  and  abbots  met  from  time  to  time  to  give  advice  to  the 
king  and  to  discuss  with  him  important  matters  of  a  public  char- 
acter.    These  great  men  of  the  country  were  known  as  the  witan, 
and  their  meeting  was  spoken  of  as  a  witenagemot^     Occasionally 
the  witan  acted  in  opposition  to  the  king  or  forced  him  to  follow 
their  judgment,  though   strong  kings  succeeded  in  acting  with 
almost  complete  independence.    For  the  most  part,  however,  the 
king  summoned  the  witenagemot  and  with  its  agreement  appointed 
the  great  officials  of  church  and  state,  promulgated  changes  in  the 
law,  made  grants  of  land,  arranged  for  military  expeditions  and 
national    payments,    and    in    general    carried    on    the    work   of 

1  The  word  gemot  (in  which  the  g  is  hard),  mote,  mot  or  moot,  was  used 
for  any  kind  of  a  formal  meeting. 


from       Greenwich         0 

ENGLAND 

clividedL  into  Sliires 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  79 

government,  with  the  witan  as  advisers.  There  were  instances 
where  the  king  was  deposed  by  the  witan,  and  it  was  of  course 
they  who  elected  him. 

63.  Shires.— All  England  south  of  the  Humber  was  by  this 
time  divided  into  shires.  In  the  southeastern  part  of  the  country 
these  corresponded  to  the  early  independent  kingdoms,  the  shires 
of  Kent,  Essex,  Sussex,  and  Middlesex  being  the  same  as  the 
kingdoms  of  the  Kentishmen  and  of  the  East,  South,  and  Middle 
Saxons.  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  were  the  north  and  south  "  folk  "  or 
branches  of  the  East  Angles.  Farther  westward  the  shires  cor- 
responded to  the  successive  settlements  or  conquests  of  the  West 
Saxons,  while  in  the  center  of  the  country  the  shires  seem  to  have 
been  organized  around  the  fortresses  by  the  West  Saxon  kings 
when  they  reconquered  the  country  from  the  Danes,  on  the  model 
of  the  same  divisions  of  their  own  older  dominions. 

Each  shire  was  governed  by  an  ealdorman  appointed  by  the 
king  and  the  witan.  Sometimes  one  ealdorman  would  hold  con- 
trol over  several  shires.  He  was  usually  a  great  noble  having 
extensive  lands  in  the  part  of  the  country  which  he  governed,  and 
in  some  cases  was  no  doubt  descended  from  the  earlier  royal 
family  of  that  region.  In  some  other  cases  he  was  a  relative  of 
the  West  Saxon  king.  He  was  a  sort  of  viceroy  or  governor,  upon 
whom  devolved  the  calling  out  of  the  fyrd  or  fighting  force  of  the 
shire  and  many  other  powers  of  local  government.  The  greater 
part  of  the  resistance  to  raids  of  the  Danes  was  made  by  the 
ealdormen  of  the  shires  upon  which  the  attacks  fell.  In  later  times 
the  word  earl  was  used  instead  of  ealdorman. 

There  was  also  in  each  shire  a  shire  reeve?-  an  official  directly 
appointed  by  the  king  and  dependent  on  him.  He  collected  the 
king's  income  in  the  shire,  enforced  the  law,  and  saw  that  other 
affairs  of  ordinary  government  there  were  attended  to.  The 
landowners  and  other  chief  men  of  the  shire  gathered  from  time 
to  time,  ordinarily  twice  a  year,  in  a  shire  mote  or  shire  court. 

1  From  which  our  word  sheriff  is  derived. 


80  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

At  this  meeting  messages  from  the  king  were  announced,  lawsuits 
between  important  men  settled,  and  other  business  attended  to. 
The  ealdorman,  the  sheriff,  and  the  bishop  were  required  to  be 
present  to  explain  and  to  carry  out  the  law. 

64.  Hundreds.  —  The  shires  were  divided  into  smaller  divisions 
which  in  the  southern  part  of  the  country  were  known  as  hun- 
dreds, in  the  northern  as  wapentakes.     In  these  also  there  was  a 
periodical  gathering  of  the  more  important  men.     They  should 
meet  according  to  law  as  often  as  once  a  month.     This  hundred 
court  was  the  place  where  most  of  the  judicial  work  of  the  people 
was  done  in  early  times.     One  of  King  Edgar's  laws  says,  "  In 
the  hundred,  as  in  every  other  gemot,  we  ordain  that  folk-right  be 
pronounced  in  every  suit."     This  included  the  punishment  of 
crimes,  the  decision  of  disputes  about  right  to  land,  and  similar 
questions.     The  king  kept  an  oversight  over  the  shire  and  hun- 
dred courts,  used  his  power  to  require  them  to  do  justice,  and 
occasionally  himself  gave  decisions  on  cases  that  were  appealed 
to  him.    Nevertheless  the  people  themselves  in  these  local  gath- 
erings were  the  judges  in  their  own  lawsuits,  and  no  other  courts 
than  those  of  the  shires  and  hundreds  existed. 

65.  Justice.  —  When  a  person  was  charged  with  a  crime  in  a 
hundred  or  shire  mote  there  were  two  customary  ways  of  testing 
his  guilt  or  innocence,  the  oath  and  the  ordeal.     These  were 
both  forms  of  appeal  to  God  to  show  which  party  was  telling  the 
truth.     The  oath,  or  wager  of  law,  was  a  requirement  to  furnish 
at  the  next  court  a  certain  number  of  persons  known  as  compur- 
gators,  who  would  each  take  a  solemn  oath  that  the  oath  taken 
by  the  party  for  whom  they  were  swearing  was  a  valid  and  credi- 
ble oath.   The  number  of  oath  takers  and  the  decision  whether  it 
should  be  the  accuser  or  the  accused  who  should  take  the  oath 
and  furnish  the  compurgators  were  decided  by  the  court.1     The 

1  This  was  also  called  computation.  The  order  of  the  court  was  usually 
expressed:  "  He  shall  appear  six  handed,"  or  whatever  the  number  might 
be,  meaning  that  he  shall  bring  that  number  of  compurgators  with  him. 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  8l 

oaths  of  men  of  high  rank  were  considered  of  more  value  than 
those  of  lower  rank.  The  oath  of  a  thegn,  for  instance,  equaled 
the  oaths  of  six  common  men. 

Instead  of  an  oath  an  ordeal  might  be  demanded.  The  most 
common  forms  of  ordeals  were  by  hot  iron  and  by  water.  A 
piece  of  iron  was  made  red  hot  in  a  fire  built  in  the  church, 
blessed  by  the  priest,  and  then  carried  by  the  accused,  who  had 
already  performed  solemn  religious  ceremonies,  a  certain  number 
of  paces  before  dropping  it.  His  hand  was  next  bound  up  and 
left  covered  for  three  days.  The  coverings  were  then  removed. 
If  his  hand  showed  proofs  of  divine  interposition  to  protect  it 
from  being  burned  or  to  heal  it,  he  was  considered  innocent.  If, 
however,  it  was  blistered  and  sore,  his  guilt  was  supposed  to  be 
proved,  and  he  failed  in  his  case  accordingly. 

In  the  ordeal  of  water,  appropriate  prayers  were  said  at  a  pond 
or  stream,  after  which  the  culprit,  tied  with  a  rope,  was  thrown 
into  the  water.  If  he  was  received  by  the  water  and  sank,  his 
innocence  was  proved ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  water  rejected 
him  and  he  floated  on  its  surface,  guilt  was  indicated.  In  either 
case  he  was  promptly  drawn  out  and  then  freed  or  subjected  to 
the  customary  punishment  for  the  offense,  as  the  case  might  be. 

Still  other  forms  of  ordeal  were  occasionally  used.  The  fear  of 
undergoing  the  ordeal  must  have  often  led  men  to  confess  or  take 
to  flight  before  the  time  came.  The  knowledge  that  it  would  act 
in  this  way  was  probably  quite  as  much  of  a  justification  for  it 
as  the  belief  of  the  people  in  its  reality  as  a  test.  Nevertheless 
nothing  better  in  the  way  of  judicial  trial  had  yet  been  invented 
among  these  primitive  people,  and  it  was  at  least  better  than  to 
leave  men  to  fight  out  their  disputes,  or  blood  feuds. 

The  law  which  was  enforced  in  the  hundred  mote  and  shire 
mote  was  "folk-right,"  that  is  to  say,  customary  law  as  it  was 
known  to  the  people  of  each  locality  or  as  it  had  been  put  in 
more  formal  and  general  terms  in  the  "  dooms  "  or  bodies  of  laws 
issued  by  successive  kings.  The  most  marked  characteristic  of 


82  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  laws  of  the  time  was  that  almost  all  crimes  and  misdemeanors 
were  punished  by  requiring  a  money  payment  from  the  culprit. 
Large  parts  of  the  written  laws  consisted  of  statements  of  the 
amounts  to  be  paid  by  offenders  for  offenses  of  different  degrees 
against  various  persons.  For  instance,  one  section  of  the  laws 
of  Alfred  provides,  "If  a  man's  thigh  be  pierced  through  let 
thirty  shillings  be  paid  him  as  a  compensation ;  if  it  be  broken 
the  compensation  is  likewise  thirty  shillings.  If  the  leg  be  pierced 
below  the  knee  there  shall  be  twelve  shillings  as  compensation ; 
if  it  be  broken  below  the  knee  let  thirty  shillings  be  paid  him  as 
compensation ;  if  the  great  toe  be  struck  off  let  twenty  shillings 
be  paid  him  as  compensation ;  if  it  be  the  second  toe  let  fifteen 
shillings  be  paid  as  compensation  ;  if  the  middlemost  toe  be  struck 
off  there  shall  be  nine  shillings,"  etc. 

A  regular  sum  was  even  payable  from  a  murderer  or  his  family 
to  the  family  of  the  murdered  man.  This  was  called  the  wer 
or  wergeld.  It  differed  in  amount  according  to  the  rank  of  the 
man  killed,  just  as  the  value  of  an  oath  depended  on  a  man's 
rank  in  society.  For  instance,  one  of  the  codes  declares,  "A 
ceorl's  wergeld  is  by  Mercian  law  two  hundred  shillings ;  a  thegn's 
wergeld  is  six  times  as  much,  that  is,  twelve  hundred  shillings," 
etc.  The  custom  of  money  payment  for  crimes  no  doubt  origi- 
nated from  the  fact  that  early  law  was  a  substitute  for  private 
warfare,  so  that  a  man  or  his  family  was  forced  to  accept  a  money 
equivalent  from  an  offender  instead  of  attacking  him  violently. 
The  fine  was  not  all  to  compensate  the  person  injured  or  his 
family  and  friends,  for  part  of  it  went  to  the  king  in  recognition 
of  his  position  as  general  keeper  of  the  public  peace  which  the 
culprit  had  violated. 

66.  Classes  and  Ranks.  — The  earliest  division  of  classes 
among  the  Anglo-Saxons  had  been  that  of  eorl  and  ceorl,  those 
of  noble  and  those  of  common  blood.  This  distinction,  how- 
ever, gradually  passed  away.  At  the  same  time  other  distinc- 
tions had  arisen,  mainly  those  of  official  rank  rather  than  of  blood. 


LATER   SAXON   ENGLAND  83 

Etheling  is  a  term  frequently  used,  meaning  a  member  of  the 
royal  family,  a  prince.  Childe  seems  to  have  meant  much  the 
same  thing.  The  ealdorman  or  earl  has  already  been  spoken  of 
as  the  ruler  of  a  shire  or  group  of  shires.  A  thegn  was  the  sworn 
follower  or  dependent  of  the  king  or  of  an  earl  or  any  other  great 
person.  He  frequently  received  a  gift  of  land  from  his  patron, 
and  was  considered  to  owe  him  special  loyalty  and  service  on 
that  account.  Gradually  thegn  came  to  mean  merely  an  impor- 
tant landholder,  a  member  of  the  gentry,  though  he  might  still 
be  bound  by  personal  bonds  of  devotion  to  the  king  or  to  some 
earl  or  bishop.  Below  these  were  the  ordinary  population,  in 
various  grades  of  freedom  and  independence  according  to  the 
terms  on  which  they  held  their  lands  or  the  extent  of  their  per- 
sonal subordination  to  the  thegns  above  them.  Still  below  these 
were  the  slaves. 

67.  Summary  of  the  Late  Anglo-Saxon  Period.  —  Scarcely  had 
the  West  Saxons  in  830  definitely  obtained  the  superiority  over 
the  other  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms  when  the  storm  of  the  Danish 
invasions  broke  upon  England  and  raged  more  or  less  constantly 
for  more  than  two  centuries.  Nevertheless  during  the  reign  of 
Alfred,  from  871  to  900,  the  tide  of  conquest  turned,  and  the 
foundations  of  a  reorganized  government  and  civilization  were 
laid.  During  the  three  quarters  of  a  century  that  followed  Alfred's 
death  the  parts  of  England  that  had  been  governed  by  Danish 
rulers  were  won  back,  the  church  reestablished,  the  form  of  gov- 
ernment tolerably  well  settled,  and  a  literature,  the  earliest  in 
modern  Europe  in  the  language  of  the  people,  formed.  The  cus- 
toms that  became  established  at  this  time,  notwithstanding  many 
later  changes  and  influences,  became  some  of  the  fundamental 
permanent  institutions  of  the  English  race. 


General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  i,  sects.  5  and  6,  gives 
a  vivid  account  of  this  period.  It  is  the  subject  of  the  same  author's  Con- 
quest of  England,  chaps,  i-vii.  More  accurate  detail  is  given  in  RAMSAY, 


84  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Foundations  of  England,  Vol.  I,  chaps,  xiv-xix.  KEARY,  Vikings  in  Western 
Christendom,  chap,  xii,  describes  the  Danes  in  England.  BOWKER,  Alfred 
the  Great,  contains  several  chapters  by  different  scholars.  PAULI,  Life 
of  Alfred,  is  a  well-known  biography :  one  of  still  higher  grade  is  PLUMMER, 
Life  and  Times  of  Alfred  the  Great.  An  excellent  little  biography  for 
younger  readers  is  TAPPAN,  Miss  E.  M.,  In  the  Days  of  Alfred  the  Great. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  language  is  well  described  in  LOUNSBURY,  History  of  the 
English  Language,  chaps,  ii  and  iii;  the  literature  in  EARLE,  Anglo-Saxon 
Literature. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  is  much  fuller  on 
this  period  than  on  that  of  the  previous  chapter.  Especially  interesting 
entries  are  those  for  the  years  827,  833,  851,  871,  878,  894,  937,  and  978. 
A  volume  of  Bohn's  Library  called  Six  Old  English  Chronicles  contains  a 
translation  of  ASSER,  Life  of  Alfred,  from  which  most  of  our  detailed 
knowledge  of  him  is  drawn.  Numerous  extracts  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
laws  are  given  in  LEE,  24-39,  and  from  Asser  in  COLBY,  8,  and  in 
KENDALL,  6-9.  The  -literature  is  well  represented  in  COOK  and  TINKER, 
Translations  from  Old  English  Poetry. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Effect  of  the  Danish  Invasion  in  England,  TRAILL, 
VoL  I,  pp.  140-147  ;  (2)  the  Anglo-Saxon  Codes,  ibid.,  164-173;  (3)  Saxon 
and  Danish  Methods  of  Fighting,  ibid.,  176-184;  (4)  Townships,  Hundreds, 
and  Shires,  MONTAGUE,  English  Constitutional  History,  pp.  8-1 1 ;  (5)  King 
and  Witenagemot,  ibid.,  pp.  11-14;  (6)  Dunstan,  GREEN,  Conquest  of 
England,  pp.  269-287  ;  (7)  Ordeals,  Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  IV, 
No.  4,  pp.  12-14;  (8)  Ravages  of  the  Danes,  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  for  the 
years  855-897. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  DANISH  AND  THE  NORMAN  CONQUESTS.    975-1071 

68.  Renewed  Invasions  by  the  Danes.  —  During  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, while  the  West  Saxon  kings  had  been  winning  back  the  Dane- 
law and  beating  off  the  scattered  bands  of  Danes  and  Norsemen 
who  still  occasionally  swept  down  on  the  coasts  from  their  head- 
quarters in  Ireland,  in  the  islands  off  Scotland,  and  on  the  con- 
tinent, three  strong  kingdoms,  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden, 
had  grown  up  in  the  Scandinavian  peninsula.  About  980  a  new 
series  of  attacks  were  made  thence  upon  England.  These  new 
invaders  were  not  mere  separate  bands  under  private  chieftains ; 
they  came  under  the  leadership,  or  at  least  under  the  authority, 
of  the  king  of  one  or  other  of  the  three  Scandinavian  kingdoms. 
Their  expeditions  were  therefore  more  persistent,  more  extensive, 
and  more  systematic  than  the  old  pillaging  raids. 

Ethelred  II,  the  "  Unready,"  or  the  "  Ill-counseled,"  as  he  is 
called,  the  son  of  Edgar,  had  a  long  reign,  from  978  to  1014,  but 
showed  himself  incapable  and  irresolute  and  but  poorly  fitted  to 
cope  with  so  great  a  national  invasion.  Besides  the  inactivity 
of  the  king  there  were  two  special  causes  for  the  weakness  of  the 
country  in  its  resistance  to  a  well-led  attack  from  abroad.  One  of 
these  was  the  poor  organization  of  the  central  government.  Too 
little  power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  king,  and  too  much  in  the 
hands  of  the  earls  and  shire  courts.  A  change  had  been  coming 
about  for  some  time  by  which  each  ealdorman  or  earl  had  a  whole 
group  of  shires  under  his  control.  Wessex,  Mercia,  East  Anglia, 
and  the  other  old  divisions  of  the  country  seemed  likely  to  be 
reconstructed  in  the  form  of  a  few  great  earldoms.  These  were 

85 


86  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

held  subject  to  the  king  but  by  noblemen  too  powerful  to  give 
much  obedience  to  him.  Therefore  united  plans  and  action 
against  the  invaders  were  scarcely  ever  obtained.  The  second 
difficulty  was  that  the  mass  of  the  people  were  becoming  less  free 
and  less  suited  to  warfare.  Laws  were  being  passed  and  changes 
were  taking  place  which  kept  them  more  closely  occupied  in 
farming,  and  placed  them  more  under  the  control  of  the  thegns 
than  they  had  been  in -earlier  and  more  barbarous  times.  The 
fyrd  was  thus  inferior  to  what  it  had  been.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  king  and  the  earls  with  their  English  forces  seem  to 
have  been  quite  incapable  of  offering  a  successful  resistance  to 
the  new  armies  of  the  Danes.  Time  and  again  the  English  were 
defeated  by  the  invaders. 

69.  Danegeld. —  England  was,  however,  as  a  result  of  the  long 
period  of  peace  and  more  advanced  industrial  life,  wealthier  than 
it  had  been.  In  default  of  sufficient  military  strength  the  king 
and  witan  made  use  of  this  greater  wealth.  They  entered  into  a 
treaty  with  the  Danes,  agreeing  to  pay  them  a  sum  of  money  as  the 
price  of  peace  and  freedom  from  further  plundering.  The  first 
such  treaty  was  entered  into  in  the  year  991,  ^10,000  in  silver 
being  paid  to  the  fleet  and  army  which  had  been  sent  by  Olaf, 
king  of  Norway.  In  order  to  make  this  payment  it  was  necessary 
to  collect  a  tax  from  the  people.  This  money  was  called  the 
Danegeld  or  Dane  tax.  It  was  the  first  tax  collected  from  the 
whole  English  nation.  It  proved,  however,  to  be  only  a  tempo- 
rary settlement.  New  invasions  took  place,  and  besides  sums 
which  were  paid  to  Danish  invaders  as  tribute  by  separate  dis- 
tricts, towns,  and  monasteries,  new  payments  from  the  whole 
nation  had  to  be  made  repeatedly  by  the  king  and  witan.  The 
resistance  of  the  country  became  less  and  less  strong,  till  finally, 
when  Swegen,  king  of  Denmark,  led  an  army  in  person  through 
the  country,  Ethelred  fled  from  England  with  his  family,  and  in 
1017  Cnut l  the  Dane,  son  of  Swegen,  became  king  of  all  England. 

1  His  name  is  also  spelled  Canute. 


I 

DOMINIONS  OF  CNUT, 
about 1O35. 


DANISH  AND   NORMAN   CONQUESTS  87 

70.  Reign  of  Cnut. — Once  having  become  the  accepted  king 
in  place  of  the  ruler  of  the  old  West  Saxon  line,  Cnut  sent  many 
of  his  fighting  men  back  to  Denmark  and  carried  on  the  govern- 
ment of  England  without  making  any  distinction  between  his 
Danish  and  English  subjects.     He  was  declared  elected  to  the 
crown  by  the  witan  of  all  England,  was  crowned  by  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  like  the  kings  of  English  race  issued 
a  new  body  of  laws.     He  retained  the  Danegeld,  however,  as  a 
form  of  permanent  national  taxation,  using  its  proceeds  to  pay  a 
body  of  housecarls,  a  small  standing  army  or  bodyguard,  made 
up  no  doubt  mainly  of  soldiers  of  his  own  race.    His  power  and 
popularity  in  England  became  so  great  that  he  felt  at  liberty  to 
go  at  two  different  times  to  his  kingdom  of  Denmark,  and  he  also 
visited  Rome  to  keep  a  vow  he  had  made  years  before. 

Cnut  kept  profound  peace  in  England,  secured  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  his  overlordship  by  the  Welsh  princes  and  the  king  of 
Scotland,  appointed  capable  earls,  shire  reeves,  bishops,  abbots, 
and  other  officials,  enriched  cathedrals  and  abbeys  with  grants 
of  land  and  valuable  rights,  and  in  other  ways  showed  himself  a 
good  ruler.  He  divided  England  more  clearly,  however,  into  five 
great  earldoms,  which  would  be  likely  to  weaken  it  under  a  king 
less  strong  than  himself.  His  two  sons,  Harold  and  Harthacnut, 
who  reigned  successively  after  him,  left  a  short  and  bad  record. 
On  the  death  of  the  second  of  them  in  1042,  as  there  was  no 
capable  man  of  the  Danish  line  to  claim  the  throne,  the  witan 
chose  as  king,  Edward,  son  of  the  exiled  king  Ethelred,  who 
represented  the  old  West  Saxon  line. 

71 .  Foreign   Connections   of   England.  —  Notwithstanding   the 
fact  that  Edward  was  a  direct  descendant  of  Alfred,  of  Egbert, 
and  of  Cerdic,  he  was  almost  as  much  of  a  foreigner  as  Cnut. 
Marriages  between  members  of  the  English  royal  family  and  of 
those  of  the  continental  countries  had  been  frequent.     Alfred's 
stepmother  was  a  Frankish  princess.     Many  of  his  descendants 
married  into  the  royal  or  noble  families  of  Europe.    Exiled  English 


88  A    SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

princes  also  had  found  a  refuge  on  the  continent  since  Egbert 
had  lived  at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Great.  These  foreign  mar- 
riages and  protection  given  to  exiles,  along  with  increasing  trade 
and  the  influence  of  the  church,  did  much  to  keep  England  in 
connection  with  the  other  parts  of  Europe.  A  certain  royal 
marriage  which  had  taken  place  shortly  before  the  Danish  con- 
quest was  of  more  than  usual  importance  because  it  drew  Eng- 
land into  closer  relations  with  the  one  continental  land  which  was 
destined  to  exercise  an  especially  strong  and  permanent  influence 
upon  its  history.  This  land  was  Normandy. 

72 .  The  Origin  of  Normandy.  —  At  the  time  the  Vikings  were 
carrying  their  expeditions  most  widely  through  Europe  a  body  of 
Northmen  under  a  chieftain  named  Rolf  or  Rollo,  after  making 
raids  in  several  parts  of  France,  obtained  permission  from  the 
king  of  the  West  Franks  to  settle  down  in  the. district  about  the 
mouth  of  the  Seine  River.  This  was  in  A.D.  912,  and  from  that 
time  forward  this  northern  district  of  France  was  occupied  largely 
by  Northmen.  They  intermarried  with  the  earlier  inhabitants, 
and  gradually  adopted  their  Christian  religion,  their  French  lan- 
guage, and  their  more  civilized  customs.  Like  the  population  of 
the  Danelaw  in  England,  they  soon  became  almost  indistinguish- 
able from  those  among  whom  they  lived  and  from  the  people  of 
other  sections  of  France.1  The  name  Northmen  was  still  kept, 
however,  under  the  form  Normans,  and  their  country  was  known 
as  Normandy.  The  successors  of  Rollo  ruled  as  dukes  of  the 
Normans,  nominally  dependent  on  the  king  of  France  but  in 
reality  almost  independent.  Their  capital  was  at  Rouen.  By 
later  grants  and  in  conflicts  with  the  neighboring  nobles  they  car- 
ried the  boundaries  of  the  lands  dependent  on  them  on  the  west 

1  The  Scandinavian  races  have  in  many  times  and  countries  shown  a 
special  capacity  for  adapting  themselves  to  the  customs  of  the  people  among 
whom  they  have  settled.  In  Ireland,  Scotland,  Germany,  and  Russia  they 
have  become  a  part  of  the  native  races  of  those  countries,  and  in  the 
United  States  they  are  now  rapidly  mingling  with  our  population. 


DANISH   AND   NORMAN   CONQUESTS  89 

as  far  as  Brittany,  on  the  east  as  far  as  Flanders,  and  on  the  south 
as  far  as  Anjou  and  the  direct  dominions  of  the  French  king. 

73.  Normandy  and  England. — The  Norman  dukes  frequently 
gave  support  and  protection  to  the  fleets  of  their  fellow  country- 
men,  the   Danish   invaders   of  England.     For    the   purpose  of 
forming  a  closer  connection  with  Normandy  and  preventing  this, 
the  English  king  Ethelred  in  1002  married  Emma,  daughter  of 
Richard,  duke  of  the  Normans.     Afterwards  when  Ethelred  was 
driven  from  his  throne  by  the  Danes,  with  his  wife  and  children 
he  took  refuge  at  Rouen,  where  his  sons  were  brought  up.     In 
this   way  a  connection   was   created   which   eventually  brought 
England,   the  larger,   more  populous,   and  wealthier,   yet  more 
backward  and  disorganized,  country,  much  under  the  influence 
of  Normandy. 

74.  The  Reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  —  When  the  Danish 
line  ran  out,  and  Edward,  'son  of  Ethelred,  was  recalled  to  the 
English  throne,  he  had  spent  twenty-five  out  of  his  thirty  years  of 
life  in  Normandy,  and  was  a  Norman  rather  than  an  Englishman 
in  language,  krowledge,  tastes,  and  feelings.     He  was  also  accom- 
panied to  England  by  Norman  relatives,  nobles,  and  churchmen, 
and  other  adventurers  came  later  from  Normandy  to  England. 

Edward  was  a  timid  and  even  an  effeminate  man,  whose  harm- 
lessness  and  religious  habits  later  caused  him  to  be  known  as 
the  "  Confessor,"  or  the  "  Saint."  He  had  none  of  the  states- 
manship of  Cnut,  which  would  have  enabled  him  to  make  him- 
self a  thorough  English  ruler  notwithstanding  his  foreign  habits ; 
nor  the  vigor  which  would  have  enabled  him  to  beat  down  all 
opposition.  His  long  reign  of  twenty-four  years,  therefore,  was 
a  period  in  which  the  king  was  alternately  under  the  influence  of 
the  native  English  nobles  and  of  his  Norman  associates. 

The  process  of  grouping  shires  in  the  hands  of  great  earls  had 
gone  on  through  the  reigns  of  Ethelred  and  Cnut  until  all  of 
England  was  divided  into  five  or  six  provinces  or  earldoms,  the 
earls  of  these  being  almost  independent,  although  appointed  by 


88  A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

princes  also  had  found  a  refuge  on  the  continent  since  Egbert 
had  lived  at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Great.  These  foreign  mar- 
riages and  protection  given  to  exiles,  along  with  increasing  trade 
and  the  influence  of  the  church,  did  much  to  keep  England  in 
connection  with  the  other  parts  of  Europe.  A  certain  royal 
marriage  which  had  taken  place  shortly  before  the  Danish  con- 
quest was  of  more  than  usual  importance  because  it  drew  Eng- 
land into  closer  relations  with  the  one  continental  land  which  was 
destined  to  exercise  an  especially  strong  and  permanent  influence 
upon  its  history.  This  land  was  Normandy. 

72 .  The  Origin  of  Normandy.  —  At  the  time  the  Vikings  were 
carrying  their  expeditions  most  widely  through  Europe  a  body  of 
Northmen  under  a  chieftain  named  Rolf  or  Rollo,  after  making 
raids  in  several  parts  of  France,  obtained  permission  from  the 
king  of  the  West  Franks  to  settle  down  in  the. district  about  the 
mouth  of  the  Seine  River.  This  was  in  A.D.  912,  and  from  that 
time  forward  this  northern  district  of  France  was  occupied  largely 
by  Northmen.  They  intermarried  with  the  earlier  inhabitants, 
and  gradually  adopted  their  Christian  religion,  their  French  lan- 
guage, and  their  more  civilized  customs.  Like  the  population  of 
the  Danelaw  in  England,  they  soon  became  almost  indistinguish- 
able from  those  among  whom  they  lived  and  from  the  people  of 
other  sections  of  France.1  The  name  Northmen  was  still  kept, 
however,  under  the  form  Normans,  and  their  country  was  known 
as  Normandy.  The  successors  of  Rollo  ruled  as  dukes  of  the 
Normans,  nominally  dependent  on  the  king  of  France  but  in 
reality  almost  independent.  Their  capital  was  at  Rouen.  By 
later  grants  and  in  conflicts  with  the  neighboring  nobles  they  car- 
ried the  boundaries  of  the  lands  dependent  on  them  on  the  west 

1  The  Scandinavian  races  have  in  many  times  and  countries  shown  a 
special  capacity  for  adapting  themselves  to  the  customs  of  the  people  among 
whom  they  have  settled.  In  Ireland,  Scotland,  Germany,  and  Russia  they 
have  become  a  part  of  the  native  races  of  those  countries,  and  in  the 
United  States  they  are  now  rapidly  mingling  with  our  population. 


DANISH   AND    NORMAN   CONQUESTS  89 

as  far  as  Brittany,  on  the  east  as  far  as  Flanders,  and  on  the  south 
as  far  as  Anjou  and  the  direct  dominions  of  the  French  king. 

73.  Normandy  and  England. — The  Norman  dukes  frequently 
gave  support  and  protection  to  the  fleets  of  their  fellow  country- 
men,  the   Danish   invaders   of  England.     For   the   purpose  of 
forming  a  closer  connection  with  Normandy  and  preventing  this, 
the  English  king  Ethelred  in  1002  married  Emma,  daughter  of 
Richard,  duke  of  the  Normans.     Afterwards  when  Ethelred  was 
driven  from  his  throne  by  the  Danes,  with  his  wife  and  children 
he  took  refuge  at  Rouen,  where  his  sons  were  brought  up.     In 
this   way  a  connection   was   created   which   eventually  brought 
England,   the  larger,   more  populous,   and  wealthier,   yet  more 
backward  and  disorganized,  country,  much  under  the  influence 
of  Normandy. 

74.  The  Reign  of  Edward  the  Confessor. — When  the  Danish 
line  ran  out,  and  Edward,  'son  of  Ethelred,  was  recalled  to  the 
English  throne,  he  had  spent  twenty-five  out  of  his  thirty  years  of 
life  in  Normandy,  and  was  a  Norman  rather  than  an  Englishman 
in  language,  krowledge,  tastes,  and  feelings.     He  was  also  accom- 
panied to  England  by  Norman  relatives,  nobles,  and  churchmen, 
and  other  adventurers  came  later  from  Normandy  to  England. 

Edward  was  a  timid  and  even  an  effeminate  man,  whose  harm- 
lessness  and  religious  habits  later  caused  him  to  be  known  as 
the  "  Confessor,"  or  the  "  Saint."  He  had  none  of  the  states- 
manship of  Cnut,  which  would  have  enabled  him  to  make  him- 
self a  thorough  English  ruler  notwithstanding  his  foreign  habits ; 
nor  the  vigor  which  would  have  enabled  him  to  beat  down  all 
opposition.  His  long  reign  of  twenty-four  years,  therefore,  was 
a  period  in  which  the  king  was  alternately  under  the  influence  of 
the  native  English  nobles  and  of  his  Norman  associates. 

The  process  of  grouping  shires  in  the  hands  of  great  earls  had 
gone  on  through  the  reigns  of  Ethelred  and  Cnut  until  all  of 
England  was  divided  into  five  or  six  provinces  or  earldoms,  the 
earls  of  these  being  almost  independent,  although  appointed  by 


90  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  king.  The  real  government  of  England  during  most  of 
Edward's  reign  was  in  the  hands  of  one  of  these  men,  Godwin, 
earl  of  Wessex.  Godwin  had  been  a  West  Saxon  thegn,  appointed 
earl  by  King  Cnut.  He  had  been  Cnut's  right-hand  man,  earl  of 
the  largest  group  of  shires  in  England,  governor  of  the  kingdom 
when  the  king  was  absent  in  Denmark  or  in  Rome,  his  principal 
adviser  at  home,  a  prudent  statesman,  a  skillful  leader  in  war, 
and  rich  in  lands  scattered  through  a  great  part  of  England. 
Therefore  when  Edward  came  to  the  throne  there  was  little 
doubt  that  the  influence  of  Godwin  would  be  all-powerful. 

Except  for  a  short  period  this  was  the  case.  Godwin  carried 
on  the  rule  of  his  own  earldom  and  obtained  the  appointment  of 
three  of  his  sons  to  other  earldoms,  kept  an  influential  position 
in  most  of  the  witenagemots  that  were  held,  and  usually  con- 
trolled the  policy  of  the  king.  Moreover,  when  Godwin  died, 
most  of  his  power  and  influence  descended  to  his  son  Harold, 
who  continued  to  hold  the  most  powerful  position  next  to  that 
of  the  king  until  the  death  of  Edward  in  1066. 

On  the  other  hand,  Norman  influence  was  by  no  means  unim- 
portant. Edward's  closest  personal  friends  and  companions  were 
his  Norman  relations  and  connections.  Two  of  them  possessed 
small  earldoms,  two  others  were  bishops.  There  was  also  a  con- 
stant immigration  of  Norman  clergymen  of  lesser  rank,  tradesmen 
and  craftsmen,  such  as  builders  and  masons,  and  others.  England 
was  already  being  quietly  but  none  the  less  deeply  influenced  by 
Normandy.  At  this  period  the  Norman  towns  Rouen,  Caen, 
Bayeux,  Coutances,  Falaise,  and  ten  or  twenty  others  were  grow- 
ing larger,  and  their  citizens  were  devoting  themselves  to  trade 
and  manufactures.  The  Normans  were  great  builders,  and 
churches,  castles,  and  town  buildings  in  Normandy  were  being 
built  strongly  of  stone,  while  in  England  they  were  still  almost 
invariably  built  of  wood. 

The  development  of  peaceful  pursuits  was  made  more  possible 
at  this  time  than  it  had  been  in  the  past  by  the  adoption  in 


DANISH   AND   NORMAN   CONQUESTS  91 

Normandy  of  what  was  called  the  "Truce  of  God."  The  Truce 
of  God  was  a  plan  or  agreement  widely  urged  by  the  clergy  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eleventh  century,  and  later  introduced 
officially  into  some  countries  and  provinces  for  the  purpose  of 
diminishing  the  constant  violence  and  warfare.  In  its  earliest 
form  it  was  a  proposal  to  refrain  from  the  use  of  arms  altogether, 
but  as  modified  later  and  as  introduced  as  a  law  into  Normandy 
by  the  duke  and  his  council  in  1042  it  only  provided  that  there 
should  be  no  private  warfare  or  other  fighting  or  disorder  from 
sunset  of  each  Wednesday  till  sunrise  of  the  next  Monday. 
Therefore  while  Ethelred  and  Cnut  and  Edward  the  Confessor 
were  ruling  in  England,  Normandy  was  becoming  a  wealthy  and 
populous  country,  well  fitted  to  exercise  influence  over  England 
should  they  be  brought  into  closer  contact. 

75.  Duke  William  and  Earl  Harold. — The  dukes  of  Nor- 
mandy found  it  a  difficult  task  to  keep  their  turbulent  barons 
in  order,  and  time  and  again  revolts  of  these  barons  had  to  be 
put  down  by  hard  fighting.  When  Robert,  the  fifth  duke  from 
Rolf,  died  in  1035  ne  kft  m  tne  charge  of  guardians  an  only 
son  named  William,  a  mere  child  of  seven  years  and  of  illegiti- 
mate birth,  his  mother  being  the  daughter  of  a  tanner  of  Falaise. 
There  seemed  small  probability  therefore  that  he  would  be  able 
to  retain  his  position  and  grow  up  to  rule  the  duchy.  Several 
times  plots  were  made  by  various  nobles  to  seize  him  from  his 
guardians,  and  he  had  to  be  hidden  or  carried  away  secretly  to 
some  other  place.  Nevertheless  his  guardians  were  faithful  to 
him,  and  he  proved,  while  a  mere  boy,  to  possess  an  energy  and 
ability  even  greater  than  that  of  his  ancestors.  He  grew  taller 
than  most  men  of  his  time,  was  constantly  active  in  hunting  or 
in  fighting,  and  in  the  difficulties  of  his  position  as  he  grew  up 
developed  shrewdness,  tenacity  of  purpose,  and  quickness  of 
decision.  After  he  became  a  man  he  had  three  severe  contests, 
—  with  a  group  of  rebellious  Norman  barons,  with  the  ruler  of  a 
neighboring  province,  the  count  of  Anjou,  and  with  his  lord,  the 


92  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

king  of  France.  From  all  of  these  he  came  out  victorious,  and 
strengthened  his  position  by  marrying  the  daughter  of  the  count 
of  Flanders,  the  next  great  province  to  the  east  of  Normandy. 

In  1051  William  visited  his  cousin,  the  king  of  England. 
William  was  at  that  time  a  man  of  thirty-four ;  his  greatness  on 
the  continent  was  already  well  established,  and  there  is  little 
doubt  that  he  had  already  formed  the  plan  of  having  himself 
chosen  to  be  Edward's  successor  as  king  of  England.  Edward 
had  no  children  or  near  relatives.  He  was  Norman  in  his  feel- 
ings and  attached  to  Norman  associates.  Duke  William  was  his 
first  cousin,  his  mother  and  William's  father  being  sister  and 
brother.  William  afterwards  claimed  that  Edward  promised  to 
use  his  influence  to  obtain  the  crown  for  him,  and  this  is  very 
likely  true,  and  the  promise  may  well  have  been  made  during 
this  visit.  Certainly  England  was  being  drawn  naturally  into  a 
very  close  connection  with  Normandy  and  was  already  somewhat 
used  to  having  foreign  kings. 

During  the  latter  part  of  Edward's  reign,  however,  nothing 
was  done  to  strengthen  William's  claim,  nor  was  it  announced  in 
any  way.  William  was  making  good  his  position  as  duke  of  Nor- 
mandy and  as  the  greatest  of  the  provincial  rulers  of  France.  On 
the  other  hand,  Earl  Godwin,  and  after  his  death  his  son  Harold, 
were  becoming  more  and  more  completely  the  rulers  of  England 
in  the  name  of  the  king,  and  were  gathering  the  earldoms  into 
the  hands  of  members  of  their  family. 

It  was  quite  certain  that  either  the  great  English  earl  or  the 
great  Norman  duke  would  be  the  next  king  of  England.  The 
advantages  of  being  on  the  ground  and  of  more  nearly  repre- 
senting the  national  feeling  were  in  favor  of  Harold.  Greater 
ability  and  the  advantages  which  the  attacking  party  always  has 
were  in  favor  of  William.  Chance  also  gave  William  an  added 
superiority,  for,  while  cruising  in  the  Channel,  Earl  Harold  was 
shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of  Ponthieu  near  Normandy  and 
became  an  unwilling  guest  of  the  duke.  He  did  not  escape  from 


DANISH  AND    NORMAN    CONQUESTS 


93 


his  courteous  but  shrewd  host  till  he  had  taken  an  oath  that  he 
would  aid  William  to  obtain  the  English  crown. 

The  test  came  when  Edward  the  Confessor  died  in  January, 
1066.  Whatever  may  have  been  his  earlier  promises  to  William, 
on  his  deathbed  he  acknowledged  Harold  as  the  natural  claimant 
to  the  throne.  The  very  next  day  the  witan,  who  were  gath- 
ered at  London,  elected 
Harold  king,  and  he  was 
crowned  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

76.  Invasion  by  Wil- 
liam. —  On  the  other 
hand,  at  the  news  of 
Harold's  election,  Duke 
William  immediately 
gave  way  to  a  wild  fit  of 
anger,  asserted  his  claim 
to  be  elected  king  of 
England,  denounced  Harold  as  a  usurper,  and  began  preparations 
for  an  invasion  of  the  country.  He  first  consulted  his  principal 
nobles  and  then  held  a  general  assembly  of  all  the  barons  of  Nor- 
mandy, appealing  to  them  for  advice  and  assistance  in  his  great 
adventure.  He  then  sent  ambassadors  to  the  king  of  France,  to 
the  neighboring  dukes  and  counts,  and  to  the  pope.  To  the 
pope  he  represented  Harold  as  an  oath  breaker  and  the  English 
people  as  but  lukewarm  in  their  obedience  to  the  head  of  the 
church.  He  thus  obtained  from  Pope  Alexander  a  consecrated 
banner  and  his  blessing  on  the  work  of  making  the  English  church 
and  people  more  obedient.  William  appealed  to  the  duty  and 
the  affections  of  his  own  Norman  subjects,  and  promised  to  them 

1  The  Bayeux  Tapestry  is  a  band  of  coarse  linen,  about  230  feet  long 
and  20  inches  wide,  on  which  scenes  from  the  Norman  Conquest  are  worked 
in  worsted  thread.  It  is  now  preserved  in  the  cathedral  at  Bayeux  in  Nor- 
mandy. It  is  supposed  to  have  been  completed  soon  after  the  Conquest. 


Earl  Harold  and  King  Edward  (from  the 
Bayeux  Tapestry1) 


94 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


and  all  others  who  should  follow  him  rich  rewards  from  the  con- 
quered country.  Earldoms  should  be  given  to  nobles,  bishoprics 
and  abbacies  to  the  churchmen,  and  the  blessings  of  the  church 
to  all.  The  lands  of  Harold  and  of  all  others  who^resisted  Wil- 
liam would  be  at  his  disposal  with  which  to  enrich  those  that 
helped  him. 

As  a  result,  within  a  few  months  many  leaders  with  goodly 
groups  of  followers  gathered  from  all  parts  of  Normandy  and 
the  adjacent  provinces  to  the  rendezvous  which  William  had 
appointed.  Transport  boats  were  built  and  contributed  by  the 
great  nobles,  and  in  September  of  the  same  year,  1066,  William 
crossed  the  Channel,  and  was  ready  to  fight  with  Harold  to  make 
good  his  claim  to  the  crown. 

There  proved  to  be  no  one  to  resist  his  landing.  King  Harold 
with  his  army  was  far  in  the  north.  He  had  obtained  informa- 
tion of  William's  preparations  and  had  kept  an  army  on  the  south- 
ern coast  all  summer,  watching  for  William's  landing ;  but  it  was 


Norman  Vessels  crossing  the  Channel  (from  the  Bayeux  Tapestry) 

almost  impossible  to  keep  together  over  harvest  time  an  army 
made  up  largely  of  peasant  farmers,  and  when  William's  invasion 
was  delayed  Harold  at  last  gave  up  the  effort  and  most  of  his 
troops  were  scattered  to  their  homes.  Scarcely  was  this  done  when 
a  new  rival,  a  third  claimant  for  the  crown,  Harold  Hardrada, 
king  of  Norway,  who  represented  the  claims  of  the  line  of  Cnut, 


DANISH    AND   NORMAN   CONQUESTS 


95 


appeared  far  up  in  Yorkshire.  Harold  hastened  to  the  north  with 
his  housecarls  and  personal  followers,  to  meet  him.  He  fought 
with  the  Norsemen  and  their  allies  the  victorious  battle  of  Stam- 
ford Bridge,  but  had  no  time  for  rest,  for  it  was  while  he  was  on 
this  campaign  that  the  news  came  that  William  had  landed. 

77.  The  Battle  of  Hastings  or  Senlac.  —  The  Norman  army 
landed  at  Pevensey,  marched  eastward  to  Hastings,  and   was 


Part  of  the  Battle  of  Hastings  (from  the  Bayeux  Tapestry) 

ravaging  that  region  when  Harold  returned  hastily  to  London, 
where  he  had  summoned  the  great  earls  of  the  north  and  the 
midlands  to  meet  him  with  their  forces.  Edwin  and  Morkere, 
however,  two  brothers  who  held  the  earldoms  of  Mercia  and 
Northumbria,  held  back  and  failed  to  join  the  king.  Harold 
gathered  an  army  as  best  he  could  from  the  surrounding  country 
to  increase  the  body  of  his  housecarls  and  personal  followers,  and 
marched  southward,  while  William  awaited  him  in  his  camp  at 
Hastings.  As  the  distance  between  the  two  armies  became  less, 
Harold  took  up  a  position  on  the  hill  of  Senlac,1  seven  miles 
north  of  Hastings,  thus  blocking  the  advance  of  the  invaders  and 
compelling  the  attack  to  be  made  by  them. 

1  The  battle  has  been  called  both  Hastings  and  Senlac.  The  former  is 
preferable  on  account  of  its  greater  familiarity,  although  the  battlefield 
is  really  some  seven  or  eight  miles  from  the  town  of  Hastings.  Senlac  is 
the  name  given  to  the  hill  by  one  of  the  contemporary  writers. 


96  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

William  accepted  the  challenge,  marched  northward,  and  here 
the  critical  battle  was  fought.  It  was  a  long  and  hard  contest,  last- 
ing from  nine  in  the  morning  till  after  six  in  the  evening.  The 
English  held  their  position  the  greater  part  of  the  day  against 
the  continuous  attacks  of  the  Normans,  and  even  won  tempo- 
rary successes ;  but  their  resistance  to  the  ever-changing  attacks 
of  the  Normans  grew  weaker,  till  in  the  late  afternoon  the 
center  of  their  line  was  at  last  overwhelmed  by  a  sudden  con- 
centrated onset.  Harold  and  his  two  brothers  were  killed  as 
they  fought  under  the  combined  standards  of  their  family  and 
of  the  West  Saxon  royal  house  ;  their  thegns,  housecarls,  and  the 
men  who  had  come  at  the  summons  to  the  fyrd  were  killed  or 
driven  into  hopeless  flight. 

The  southeast  of  England  now  lay  open  to  William,  but  there 
was  no  certainty  yet  that  he  would  be  acknowledged  by  the 
English  as  king.  The  division  of  England  into  great,  almost 
independent  earldoms  had  left  Harold  complete  royal  power 
only  in  the  south  and  east;  the  earls  of  Mercia  and  North- 
umbria  had  neither  given  him  assistance  at  the  battle  nor  had 
their  dominions  yet  been  invaded  by  William.  The  greater 
part  of  England  was  still  unconquered,  and  in  fact  Edgar, 
"  the  ^Etheling,"  a  youthful  but  ambitious  descendant  of  the 
old  West  Saxon  line,  was  chosen  king  on  the  death  of  Harold 
by  the  witan  gathered  at  London. 

78.  The  Conquest  of  England.  — William  acted  with  the  great- 
est skill  and  vigor.  He  sent  detachments  of  troops  through  the 
southeastern  shires,  ravaging  in  some  places,  receiving  submission 
in  others.  Then  he  marched  with  his  main  body  of  troops  from 
Senlac  back  to  Hastings,  then  to  Dover,  and  thence  by  the  old 
Roman  road  through  Canterbury  to  Southwark,  which  is  just 
across  the  river  from  London.  Finding  that  the  people  of  London 
and  the  north  still  showed  no  sign  of  inviting  him  to  become  king. 
he  set  Southwark  on  fire  as  a  warning,  marched  westward,  then^ 
northward,  crossed  the  Thames  at  Wallingford,  and  then  passed 


DANISH   AND    NORMAN   CONQUESTS 


97 


some  distance  eastward  to  Berkhampstead,  so  as  to  put  himself 
between  the  still  unconquered  parts  of  England  and  the  great  city 
which  had  practically  become  the  capital  of  England. 

At  this  the  witan  gave  way.  A  number  of  the  great  nobles, 
churchmen,  and  citizens,  including  Edgar  ^Etheling  himself,  who 
had  not  yet  been  crowned  and  quietly  ignored  his  own  recent 
election,  came  out  of  London,  offered  William  the  crown,  and 
invited  him  to  come  to  the  city  for  his  coronation.  Then,  or 
shortly  afterwards,  the  two  great  northern  earls  made  their  sub- 
mission. On  Christmas  Day,  1066, 
William  was  elected  and  crowned  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  The  old  cere- 
monies were  used,  and  he  took  the 
same  oaths  as  the  English  kings  before 
him  had  taken. 

William  was  now,  in  form  at  least, 
king  of  England,  and  immediately  began 
the  exercise  of  the  powers  and  duties 
of  his  position.  Nevertheless  the  con- 
quest of  England  was  far  from  com- 
plete. This  conquest  was  the  work  of  Norman  Archers  (from  the 
the  next  four  years.  In  1067,  while 

William  was  on  a  visit  to  Normandy,  two  revolts  occurred  in 
England  and  were  put  down  by  those  to  whom  he  had  left 
the  government  of  the  country.  In  the  spring  of  1068  William 
returned  and  took  an  army  into  the  southwest  to  punish  the 
resistance  of  Exeter  and  other  towns  and  districts  in  that  part 
of  the  country,  which  had  preserved  a  sullen  half-independence. 
Later  in  the  same  year  there  were  signs  of  a  rising  in  the  center 
and  the  north,  where  Edgar  ^Etheling  and  the  earls  Edwin  and 
Morkere  were  trying  to  gain  help  in  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  the 
new  king  from  the  king  of  Denmark.  William  organized  an  army 
and  led  it  thither,  building  castles  in  Warwick,  Nottingham,  and 
York,  and  filling  them  with  strong  garrisons,  as  he  had  done  the 


98  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

year  before  in  London  and  some  of  the  western  towns.  As  he 
marched  northward  he  received  the  submission  of  the  earls  and 
of  many  other  influential  Englishmen  without  fighting.  On  his 
way  back  and  later  he  located  and  ordered  the  building  of  castles 
in  a  number  of  other  towns.  Within  the  next  year  or  two  there 
were  again  risings  of  the  English  under  native  leaders  in  the  north 
and  northwest.  These  were  put  down  by  William  in  person. 
He  brought  an  army  with  him  and  occupied  York  and  other 
towns,  built  castles,  and  harried  the  surrounding  country  without 
,./'-\.  mercy.  He  then 

crossed  the  moors 
to  Chester  and 
crushed   out  with 
a  heavy  hand  the 
independence 
Norwich  Castle,   which  that  city 
built  by  William    had  sought  to 
the  Conqueror      maintain. 

The  last  resist- 
ance was  made  in  the  marshy  country  of  the  east  of  England, 
where  a  party  of  English  outlaws  under  a  leader  named  Hereward 
held  out  against  the  government  of  William  till  late  in  the  year 
1071,  when  they  were  defeated  and  captured.  England  was  at 
last  completely  conquered.  Through  every  part  of  the  country 
William  had  ridden  with  his  army.  There  was  scarcely  a  shire  in 
England  in  which  he  had  not  appeared  as  conqueror  or  master. 
There  had  been  no  show  of  rebellion  which  had  not  been  over- 
come and  no  resistance  which  had  not  been  punished. 

79.  Summary  of  the  Period  of  Conquest.  —  The  conquest  of 
England  by  Cnut  in  1016  was  not  relatively  very  important,  as 
it  brought  little  that  was  Danish  or  new  into  England.  Cnut 
ruled  England  purely  as  a  native  king,  appointing  Englishmen  to 
the  most  influential  positions  and  drawing  his  laws  from  the  ear- 
lier Anglo-Saxon  codes.  Except  in  name  and  in  the  method  by 


DANISH   AND   NORMAN   CONQUESTS  99 


Campaigns  of  William  the  Conqueror.  (The  lines  indicate  his  military 
journeys  through  the  country.  The  places  marked  O  indicate 
the  towns  where  he  had  castles  erected.) 


100  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

which  he  obtained  the  crown  he  might  have  been  an  ordinary 
successor  of  the  West  Saxon  line  of  kings. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Norman  Conquest  had  an  importance 
which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  overestimate.  It  opened  a  new 
era  for  England  and  gave  to  its  history  a  direction  and  character 
far  different  from  that  which  it  would  have  had  except  for  this 
conquest.  This  permanent  effect  was  due  to  at  least  three  causes. 
In  the  first  place,  the  conquest  came  at  a  critical  period  not  only 
in  the  history  of  England  but  of  other  European  countries.  The 
large  countries  or  nations  were  at  this  time  breaking  up  into  small 
separate  provinces  under  half-independent  earls,  counts,  dukes, 
or  other  great  nobles.  This  tendency  had  been  quite  as  well 
marked  in  England  as  on  the  continent.  But  the  victory  of 
William  the  "  Conqueror,"  as  he  is  called,  introduced  a  strong, 
centralized,  orderly  government  which  reversed  this  tendency  to 
subdivision  as  far  as  England  was  concerned.  The  result  was 
that  England  for  the  next  four  or  five  centuries  had  a  stronger 
government  than  any  other  country  of  Europe.  In  the  second 
place,  the  conquest  was  made  by  a  race  of  people  who  had  a 
genius  for  government  and  political  organization.  The  dukes  of 
Normandy,  who  now  became  kings  of  England,  and  the  Norman 
nobles  who  held  the  highest  positions  in  England  under  them, 
were  a  vigorous  and  gifted  if  brutal  and  cruel  race  of  men.  They 
organized  a  system  of  taxation,  developed  the  law  and  law  courts, 
kept  records,  and  introduced  other  improvements  in  government 
far  more  rapidly  than  the  Anglo-Saxons  had  shown  any  signs  of 
doing.  In  the  third  place,  the  conquest  was  important  because 
it  brought  England  into  closer  contact  with  a  part  of  the  continent 
where  trade,  the  development  of  town  life,  building,  and  inter- 
course with  other  parts  of  Europe  were  going  on  with  the  greatest 
activity.  England  was  detached  from  the  sluggish  north  of  Europe 
and  united  with  the  more  active  and  civilized  center  and  south. 
The  Norman  Conquest  occurring  when  and  as  it  did  was  without 
doubt  the  most  important  single  event  in  the  history  of  England. 


DANISH   AND   NORMAN   CONQUESTS  IOI 

General  Reading.  —  The  great  work  on  this  period  is  FREEMAN,  E.  A., 
The  Norman  Conquest,  6  vols.,  of  which  the  first  three  refer  to  the  time  of 
this  chapter.  This  work  is,  however,  expensive,  long,  and  difficult  to  read. 
The  same  author  has  a  valuable  Short  History  of  the  Norman  Conquest. 
GREEN,  Conquest  of  England,  chaps,  viii-xi,  is  midway  in  length  between  these 
two  and  very  satisfactory ;  while  the  same  author's  Short  History,  chap,  ii, 
sects.  1-5,  is  particularly  good.  RAMSAY,  Foundations  of  England,  Vol.  I, 
chaps,  xxiii-xxx,  and  Vol.  II,  chaps,  i-vii,  is  the  most  recent  study  of  the 
period.  FREEMAN,  William  the  Conqueror  (Twelve  English  Statesmen), 
chaps,  i-viii,  deals  with  the  history  of  William  till  the  conquest  of  England 
was  complete. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  continues  through 
this  period,  the  entries  for  the  years  991,  994,  999,  1002,  1009-1011,  1014- 
1017,  1066,  and  1067  being  of  special  interest.  William  of  Malmesbury  and 
Florence  of  Worcester  are  almost  contemporary  chroniclers  whose  books 
are  translated  and  published  in  the  Bohn  Library.  The  Bayeux  Tapestry 
is  worth  close  study  for  costumes  and  some  of  the  events  of  the  Conquest. 
Parts  of  it  are  reproduced  in  many  places,  and  the  whole  of  it  as  an  atlas 
accompanying  THIERRY,  History  of  the  Norman  Conquest,  which  is  other- 
wise a  work  of  but  little  value.  A  number  of  extracts  concerning  Cnut, 
and  one  of  special  interest  describing  the  battle  of  Hastings,  are  given  in 
LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  40-44;  others  in  COLBY,  Nos.  10-12;  and  still 
others  in  KENDALL,  including  Cnut's  Letter  from  Rome,  No.  12,  and  a 
contemporary  description  of  the  Normans  from  William  of  Malmesbury, 
No.  14. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  THACKERAY,  Ballad  of  King  Canute,  gives  the 
familiar  story  of  his  rebuke  to  his  courtiers.  TENNYSON,  Harold  (a  drama). 
BULWER-LYTTON,  Harold,  the  Last  of  the  Saxon  Kings,  and  KINGSLEY, 
Hereward,  are  two  stories  of  the  period  of  the  Conquest  which,  although 
including  much  imaginary  detail,  are  probably  correct  in  their  main  outlines. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Danegeld,  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  entries  for  the 
years  991,  994,  1002,  1007,  1014;  (2)  the  Origin  of  Normandy,  GREEN, 
Short  History,  chap,  ii,  sects.  3,  4;  (3)  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  TRAILL, 
Social  England,  Vol.  I,  pp.  299,  300 ;  (4)  the  Revolt  in  the  Fen-Country, 
KINGSLEY,  Hereward ;  (5)  Coronation  of  William  the  Conqueror,  Anglo- 
Saxon  Chronicle  for  the  year  1066 ;  (6)  Journeys  of  Cnut,  RAMSAY,  Vol.  I, 
chap.  xxiv. 


CHAPTER   VII 
ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS.     1066-1154 

80.  The  Norman  Aristocracy.  —  The  Norman  Conquest  con- 
sisted not  only  in  driving  one  king  from  the  English  throne  and 
putting  another  in  his  place,  but  in  placing  the  Norman  com- 
panions and  followers  of  William  in  all  positions  of  influence  in 
England.  This  process  had  begun  to  a  slight  extent,  as  already 
pointed  out,  even  during  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor. 
Now,  step  by  step,  as  William  completed  the  military  conquest  of 
the  country,  he  left  a  few  Normans  established  in  each  locality, 
endowed  with  lands  and  intrusted  with  many  of  the  duties  and 
powers  of  government.  The  rights  and  powers  as  landlords  pos- 
sessed by  the  Saxon  king,  earls,  and  thegns  who  had  fought 
against  William  either  at  the  battle  of  Hastings  or  in  the  later 
contests  were  forfeited  to  him.  These  he  distributed  among  his 
followers.  The  ordinary  peasants  living  upon  the  estates,  who 
were  the  actual  occupants  of  the  land,  were  but  seldom  disturbed, 
and  continued  to  pay  their  rents  and  services  to  the  new  land- 
lords instead  of  to  the  old. 

The  confiscated  estates  were  in  some  cases  retained  by  the  king, 
in  others  given,  and  with  no  niggard  hand,  to  those  who  had  helped 
him  in  his  adventure.  To  his  brother  Robert  of  Mortain  he  gave 
altogether  793  manors ;  to  his  other  brother,  Odo,  439  ;  to  Alan 
of  Brittany,  442  ;  and  to  others,  smaller  numbers,  down  even  to 
single  manors.  These  grants  to  the  influential  Norman  leaders 
were  no  doubt  made  at  different  times,  as  the  possessions  of  the 
Saxons  were  confiscated.  The  result  was  that  no  great  noble's 
property  was  all  in  any  one  place.  He  possessed  one  manor  or 

102 


ENGLAND   UNDER   THE   NORMANS  103 

group  of  manors  here,  another  there,  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  as  the  dispossessed  Saxons  happened  to  have  held  them ; 
though  frequently,  of  course,  with  a  preponderance  of  his  posses- 
sions in  some  one  shire.1  In  this  way  Norman  landed  families 
were  established  all  over  England,  some  almost  rivaling  the  king 
himself  in  their  power  and  income,  though  others  were  of  course 
of  much  less  power  and  wealth,  down  to  the  mere  holder  of  a 
single  manor.  There  were  even  Norman  knights  or  esquires  little 
above  common  soldiers  or  farmers  who  were  settled  down  on  a 
little  holding  of  land  granted  to  them  by  some  larger  landholder 
or  by  the  king. 

81.  Military  Services. — These  estates  were  granted  to  their 
new  lords  not  in  full  ownership  but  on  condition  of  performing 
military  service  and  certain  other  duties  to  the  king.  Each  land- 
holder was  required  to  provide  a  certain  number  of  soldiers, 
roughly  proportioned  to  the  extent  of  the  estate.  This  perform- 
ance of  military  service  in  return  for  a  grant  of  land  furnished  the 
basis  for  what  is  known  as  "  feudalism"  or  "  feudal  tenure."  As  a 
custom  it  was  already  quite  common  in  England.  In  Normandy 
it  was  still  more  widespread  and  well  understood.  The  sudden  con- 
fiscation and  regrant  of  such  a  large  part  of  the  land  of  England 
within  a  few  years  gave  to  the  Normans  an  opportunity  for  intro- 
ducing feudal  tenure  in  even  greater  completeness  than  on  the 
continent.  The  group  of  customs  which  made  up  feudalism  will 
be  discussed  more  fully  later  in  this  chapter,  when  the  time  is 
reached  at  which  it  attained  its  full  development. 

The  greatest  of  William's  followers,  several  of  whom  were 
related  by  blood  or  marriage  to  the  king,  were  given  the  old 

1  This  scattering  of  the  landed  possessions  of  each  lord  is  often  thought 
to  have  been  deliberately  arranged  by  William  so  that  a  noble  should  not 
obtain  too  much  strength  by  having  all  his  tenants  together.  There  is  no 
contemporary  testimony  to  show  what  his  intention  was,  but  the  scatter- 
ing is  much  more  likely  to  have  been  merely  the  natural  result  of  the  confis- 
cations and  regrants  than  of  such  an  ingenious  policy  on  William's  part. 


104  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

English  title  of  earl,  corresponding  to  the  title  of  count  in  the 
continental  countries.  He  gave  the  title  very  sparingly,  however, 
bestowing  it  altogether  on  but  twelve  of  his  barons.1  Their  pow- 
ers were,  moreover,  by  no  means  those  of  viceroys,  like  the  earls 
of  Saxon  times.  Such  powers  and  privileges  as  they  possessed 
were  restricted  to  some  one  shire,  and  seldom  amounted  to  more 
than  the  right  to  collect  certain  payments  and  the  power  they 
naturally  possessed  as  lords  of  many  estates  and  many  tenants. 

William  also  appointed  Normans  to  serve  as  sheriffs  of  the 
shires,  or  counties,  as  the  shires  came  now  to  be  called,  as  consta- 
bles of  his  new  castles,  and  as  officials  of  still  lower  rank,  endow- 
ing these  likewise  with  lands  obtained  by  confiscation.  Altogether 
forty  or  fifty  great  barons  were  given  high  titles  or  offices  and 
extensive  estates  in  England.  Several  hundred  more,  mostly 
bearers  of  names  drawn  from  places  in  Normandy  or  other  parts 
of  France,  were  given  lesser  appointments  and  grants  of  land 
from  the  king,  and  many  other  Normans  held  lands  granted  to 
them  by  their  more  powerful  fellow  countrymen. 

Thus,  within  a  very  few  years  after  the  battle  which  gave 
William  the  throne,  Norman  earls,  sheriffs,  barons,  and  knights 
had  superseded  Saxon  earls,  sheriffs,  and  thegns  in  official  posi- 
tions and  as  landholders,  while  the  upper  classes  of  the  Saxons 
had  been  killed  or  driven  into  banishment,  or  had  fallen  into  the 
less  distinguished  classes  of  the  community. 

82.  Bishops  and  Abbots. — The  same  thing  happened  in  the 
church,  except  that  the  change  was  made  more  gradually.  As  the 
Saxon  bishops  and  abbots  died,  or  in  some  cases  as  they  were  for 
various  causes  deposed,  Normans  were  appointed  in  their  places. 
All  influence  in  the  church  was  then  exercised  by  these  Norman 
prelates.  A  priest  of  the  cathedral  of  Bayeux,  for  instance,  was 

1  The  most  prominent  of  these  were  his  brothers  Odo  and  Robert, 
made  earls  of  Kent  and  Cornwall ;  William  Fitz  Osbern,  earl  of  Hereford ; 
Henry  de  Beaumont,  earl  of  Warwick;  Roger  of  Montgomery,  earl  of 
Shrewsbury  ;  and  Walter  Giffard,  earl  of  Buckingham. 


ENGLAND    UNDER   THE    NORMANS 


105 


made  archbishop  of  York  soon  after  the  Conquest ;  then  an  abbot 
of  Caen  was  made  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  the  chaplains  of 
the  king  who  had  come  with  him  or  afterwards  followed  him  from 
Normandy  were  rapidly  promoted  to  bishoprics  and  abbacies. 

The  Norman  bishops  soon  transferred  the  seats  of  their  bishop- 
rics from  the  small  towns  or  country  places  where  their  prede- 
cessors had  been  established  to  the  largest  town  in  each  diocese, 
and  there  began  the  erection  of  the  large  churches  which  later 


Canterbury  Cathedral  as  it  was  completed  long  after  the  Conquest 

grew  into  the  splendid  cathedrals  which  still  give  to  England 
much  of  its  dignity  and  beauty.  The  newly  appointed  Norman 
abbots  were  just  as  ambitious  to  extend  the  number  and  grandeur 
of  their  abbey  buildings.  The  bishoprics  and  abbeys  were  in 
general  allowed  by  William  to  retain  their  lands  on  condition  of 
acknowledging  that  they  held  them  from  him  and  owed  him  service 
for  them.  He  also  founded  and  enriched  with  extensive  lands, 
in  fulfillment  of  a  vow  he  had  made  on  the  battlefield  of  Hastings, 
an  abbey  which  was  erected  on  the  spot  where  that  battle  was 
fought,  and  which  was  always  afterwards  known  as  Battle  Abbey. 


106  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND 

83.  The  Common  People. — As  has  been  said,  many  Normans 
of  lower  rank  came  to  England  in  the  wake  of  the  Conquest, 
though  there  is  no  means  of  knowing  how  many.     Normandy 
was  a  .very  populous  country,  and   many  came  to  England  to 
improve  their  fortunes  now  that  their  own  duke  was  king  there. 
They  came  especially  to  live  in  the  towns  and  to  engage  in  trade 
and  handicrafts.     Thus,  notwithstanding  the  plundering  of  the 
towns  by  William  and  his  soldiers  in  the  early  days  of  the  Con- 
quest, and  notwithstanding  the  destruction  of  houses  to  make 
room  for  the  castles,   the   Norman  connection  soon  led   to  an 
increase  in  the  activity,  population,  and  wealth  of  the  towns. 

Marriages  very  soon  took  place  between  Normans  and  English, 
so  that  the  two  races  began  to  blend  almost  from  the  beginning. 
For  a  long  time,  however,  the  upper  classes  were  more  largely 
Normans,  the  peasantry  in  the  country  purely  English. 

84.  The  Norman  French  Language.  — Another  effect  of  the  Nor- 
man Conquest  had  been  to  introduce  a  third  language  into  England. 
The  conquerors  had  spoken  in  Normandy  a  form  of  French,  and 
this  therefore  became  in  England  the  language  of  the  king  and 
his  court,  of  the  nobility,  of  government  officials,  and  in  all  proba- 
bility of  the  greater  number  of  the  traders  in  the  towns.     Latin 
was  still  used  in  the  services  and  in  most  of  the  business  of  the 
church,  and  in  almost  all  written  documents.     English  was  used 
by  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  and  in  lawsuits  in  which  English- 
men were  concerned  or  old  English  laws  and  charters  quoted. 
King  William  himself  is  said  to  have  tried  to  learn  English  in 
order  that  he  might  understand  the  testimony  given  at  the  law- 
suits of  his  English  subjects.    No  doubt  songs  were  still  composed 
and  sung  in  the  language  of  the  people,  and  there  were  no  signs 
of  English  being  abandoned  by  those  who  were  born  to  its  use. 
Yet  the  concurrent  use  of  the  two  languages  led  to  many  changes 
in  the  old  English,  and  when  it  came  into  literary  use  again,  at 
a  later  time,  the  endings  of  its  words  had  been  lost,  a  vast  num- 
ber of  new  words  introduced,  and  it  was  almost  a  new  language. 


f  Longitude  West  0  Longitude  East  ^  from  Greenwich  4 

DOMINIONS  OF 
WILLIA3I  THE  CONQUEROR,58 

a^"tiosr. 


ENGLAND   UNDER   THE   NORMANS  107 

85.  Reign  of  William  I.  —  William  was  king  of  England  for 
twenty-one  years,  from  his  coronation  in   1066  to  his  death  in 
1087.    The  first  few  years  of  his  reign  were  occupied  largely  with 
the  completion  of  the  Conquest  by  putting  down  the  risings  in 
different  parts  of  England.     He  also  made  an  expedition  into 
the  south  of  Scotland,  forcing  Malcolm,  the  Scottish  king,  who 
had  made  several  raids  into   Northumbria   since   the  battle  of 
Hastings,  to  swear  allegiance  to  him.    Later  William  also  invaded 
Wales,  and  thus  obtained  the  same  nominal  control  over  the  whole 
island   that   his   Anglo-Saxon   predecessors    had   claimed.      He 
retained  his  dukedom  of  Normandy  and  visited  it  repeatedly, 
settling  its  internal  affairs  and  carrying  on   conflicts  with   the 
counts  of  the  provinces  adjacent  to  it. 

86.  William  and  the  Papacy.  —  A  question  of  some  difficulty 
arose  in  regard  to  William's  relation  to  the  pope.     The  encourage- 
ment granted  by  the  pope  to  the  original  project  of  invasion  of 
England  by  William  was  of  so  great  value  in  obtaining  volunteers 
for  that  expedition  as  to  put  William  under  obligations  to  the 
head  of  the  church.     His  religious  feelings  and  habits  tended  the 
same  way,  and  he  had  no  wish  to  keep  the  English  church  as  far 
separate  from  Rome  as  it  had  been.     On  the  other  hand,  a  short 
time  after  the  Conquest  a  new  pope  was  elected  who  held  such 
high  views  of  the  authority  of  his  office  as  to  bring  him  into 
conflict  with  all  the  temporal  sovereigns  of  Europe,  no  matter 
how  pious  or  devoted  to  the  papacy  they  might  be.     This  pope 
was  Hildebrand,  or  Gregory  VII,  as  he  was  now  called.1     He 
had  been  an  influential   Roman  church  official  for  many  years 
before  his  election,  and  now  determined   to  introduce  much- 
needed  reforms  into  the  church  throughout  Europe.     In  order 
to  do  so  he  asserted  the  supremacy  of  the  pope  not  only  over 

1  When  a  new  pope  is  elected  he  chooses  any  name  he  wishes.  Since 
there  are  certain  names  much  used, — as  Gregory,  Clement,  John,  Pius, 
Leo,  and  Urban,  —  a  numeral  has  generally  to  be  added  to  distinguish  him 
from  predecessors  who  have  taken  the  same  name. 


108  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

all  clergymen  but  even  over  all  kings  and  nobles  of  the  various 
countries,  intending,  however,  to  apply  this  supremacy  only  in 
church  matters.  As  part  of  this  policy,  he  summoned  William 
to  take  an  oath  of  submission  and  faithfulness  to  him.  This  Wil- 
liam declined  to  do,  on  the  grounds  that  he  had  never  made 
such  a  promise  and  that  the  earlier  English  kings  had  not  done 
so.  Gregory  accepted  this  refusal  at  the  time  and  also  postponed 
several  of  his  other  proposed  measures,  so  far  as  England  was 
concerned.  William  also  laid  down  the  rules  that  no  pope  should 
be  recognized  by  Englishmen  except  by  the  king's  authority, 
that  no  papal  bull  should  be  published  in  England  until  it  had 
been  inspected  by  the  king,  that  no  royal  officials  should  be 
excommunicated  except  with  his  sanction,  and  that  no  church 
councils  were  to  be  held  or  canons l  enacted  in  England  without 
his  consent.  These  statutes  were  not  so  much  directed  against 
the  authority  of  the  pope  as  they  were  against  the  claims  which 
English  churchmen  might  make  to  act  independently  of  the  king. 
They  do  not,  however,  seem  to  have  created  any  antagonism  with 
Lanfranc,  the  king's  friend,  who  as  archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
exercising  a  beneficial  rule  over  the  church  in  England. 

87.  Preservation  of  Old  Customs.  —  When  William  based  his 
refusal  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  pope  on  the  absence  of  such  a 
custom  among  his  Anglo-Saxon  predecessors  he  was  following  his 
usual  policy  of  laying  stress  on  his  position  as  a  legally  chosen 
English  king.  He  maintained  that  Harold  was  a  usurper,  but 
for  Edward  the  Confessor  and  the  kings  who  preceded  him  he 
expressed  the  greatest  respect.  He  retained  most  of  the  old  Eng- 
lish customs  of  government.  He  called  the  nobles  and  churchmen 
together  to  great  councils,  just  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings  had 
held  their  witenagemots.  Indeed,  he  held  such  councils  more  reg- 
ularly and  formally  than  they  had  ever  been  held  before.  When 
he  was  not  abroad  he  made  a  practice  of  summoning  the  great 
men  of  the  country  to  a  council  three  times  a  year,  —  at  Easter, 

1  A  canon  is  a  law  of  the  church  adopted  at  a  church  council. 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   NORMANS  IOQ 

Whitsuntide,  and  Christmas ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  spring,  early 
summer,  and  midwinter.  At  these  times  he  had  his  crown  placed 
on  his  head,  and  there  was  much  ceremony,  feasting,  and  display. 
These  were  also  occasions  for  the  discussion  of  important  points 
of  policy,  making  appointments  and  grants,  and  announcing  the 
king's  decisions  and  intentions.  These  councils  were  summoned 
more  frequently  at  Winchester,  London,  and  Gloucester,  all  in 
the  south,  than  at  any  other  places,  though  once  at  least  the  king 
kept  his  Christmas  feast  and  council  at  York,  in  the  far  north. 
He  kept  up  the  shire  and  hundred  motes,  or  county  and  hundred 
courts,  as  they  were  now  called.  He  retained  also  the  Danegeld, 
which  could  easily  be  collected  for  other  purposes  than  to  buy 
off  or  drive  off  the  Danes.  Like  the  more  enlightened  of  his 
predecessors,  he  also  issued,  early  in  his  reign,  a  code  of  laws 
based  on  those  of  earlier  kings,  with  comparatively  few  additions 
or  changes. 

88.  New  Customs.  —  On  the  other  hand,  William  introduced 
much  that  was  new.  He  made  the  "  forest  laws,"  which  were 
severe  regulations  against  hunting  game  in  the  king's  forests  by 
any  others  than  the  king  and  his  nobles.  He  extended  the  limits 
of  an  old  forest  region  in  Hampshire  near  Winchester  by  adding 
to  it  all  the  pieces  of  woodland  in  the  neighborhood  and  even 
driving  out  the  population  of  a  number  of  villages.  He  then 
placed  the  whole  district  under  the  control  of  special  forest 
officers  and  the  forest  laws.  This  tract  was  known  as  the  "  New 
Forest,"  1  and  was  the  first  and  largest  of  a  number  of  such 
royal  hunting  preserves  afforested  by  the  king's  successors. 
Forests,  in  this  use  of  the  word,  were  not  always  regions  covered 
with  trees,  nor  were  they  necessarily  without  a  population.  They 
were  simply  districts  where  the  ordinary  laws  did  not  apply  and 
where  many  special  laws  were  in  force,  directed  to  the  preservation 
of  the  game.  The  cruelty  with  which  William  drove  the  unof- 
fending peasantry  from  their  homes  for  this  purpose  in  a  time  of 

1  See  map  on  p.  9. 


no 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


entire  peace,  and  the  harshness  of  the  forest  laws  which  he 
introduced,  left  upon  his  own  and  later  times  an  impression  of 
his  tyranny  and  hardness  which  the  far  more  terrible  ravaging 
during  the  years  of  the  actual  Conquest  does  not  seem  to  have 
produced.  Hunting  was  a  passion  with  William,  and  a  chronicler 
who  lived  at  his  court  said  of  him  :  "  He  made  large  forests  for 
the  deer  and  enacted  laws  that  whoever  killed  a  hare  or  a  hind 
therein  should  be  blinded.  As  he  forbade  killing  the  deer  so  also 

the  boars.  He  loved 
the  tall  stags  as  if  he 
were  their  father.  He 
also  appointed  con- 
cerning the  hares,  that 
they  should  go  free." 
William  also  intro- 
duced into  England 
the  "  curfew  "  x  law. 
This  was  a  require- 
ment that  all  fires 
It  was  a  regulation  in 


Trial  by  Wager  of  Battle  (from  a  manuscript 
of  the  thirteenth  century) 


should  be  put  out  or  covered  at  nightfall, 
existence  at  that  time  in  several  European  countries,  intended 
to  prevent  accidental  conflagrations.  It  had  never  before  been 
introduced  into  England,  probably  because  towns  with  their 
great  liability  to  fires  were  not  numerous  there,  and  being  a  new 
custom  was  felt  ty  the  English  to  be  an  exercise  of  tyranny. 

In  the  law  courts  an  additional  method  of  proof,  besides  the 
oath  and  the  ordeal,  was  introduced  by  the  Normans.  This  was 
the  "wager  of  battle."  If  one  man  charged  another  with  an  offense 
or  a  wrong  done  to  him  and  the  latter  denied  it,  the  court  might 
declare  that  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  charge  should  be  decided 
by  a  judicial  battle.  At  an  appointed  time,  after  each  contestant 
had  sworn  to  the  truth  of  his  statement,  a  contest  under  regular 
forms  with  short  battle-axes  or  hammers  of  an  established  shape 

1  Curfew  is  an  English  pronunciation  of  the  French  couvre-feu,  "  cover  fire." 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS      III 

took  place,  the  one  who  was  first  compelled  to  acknowledge  defeat 
losing  his  case.  This  also  had  long  been  familiar  on  the  conti- 
nent, but  was  previously  unknown  in  England. 

89.  Domesday  Book. — Just  at  the  close  of  his  reign  William 
after  consultation  with  his  nobles  sent  out  groups  of  officials  to 
the  various  parts  of  the  country  to  obtain  by  sworn  statements  of 
the  inhabitants  fuller  knowledge  of  who  the  landholders  of  the 
country  were,  how  many  tenants  of  various  classes  they  had,  how 
much  tax  they  paid  when  a  Danegeld  was  collected,  and  what  the 
real  value  of  each  estate  was.     The  officials  who  served  as  com- 
missioners passed  from  hundred  to  hundred  in  each  shire,  calling 
some  of  the  inhabitants  from  each  township  before  them  and 
requiring  them  to  give  answers  on  these  and  other  points.     A 
vast  mass  of  detailed  information  was  obtained  by  this  census. 
It  was  sent  to  Winchester  and  there  gone  over,  rearranged,  and 
copied  by  the  king's  clerks.    The  result  was  two  thick  manuscript 
volumes,  which  still  exist  just  as  they  were  written  at  that  time. 
They  have  always  been  known  as  Domesday  Book.     The  work 
gives  us  a  fuller  and  more  detailed  knowledge  of  England  at  the 
time  of  the  Norman  Conquest  than  we  have  of  any  other  mediaeval 
country,  although  the  real  meaning  of  many  of  its  statements  is 
obscure  and  is  only  being  gradually  learned  by  much  study. 

The  power  to  compel  the  people  of  all  England  to  give  this 
information  shows  how  great  the  authority  of  William  was.  Even 
in  modern  times,  when  the  power  of  the  government  is  practically 
irresistible,  people  often  decline,  delay,  or  hesitate  to  give  census 
information.  In  the  eleventh  century  probably  no  other  ruler  in 
Europe  had  sufficient  power  to  collect  detailed  reports  of  this 
nature  from  his  whole  kingdom.  The  ability  to  put  these  reports 
into  such  good  shape  also  indicates  the  organization  of  a  quite 
efficient  body  of  government  clerks  and  other  officials. 

90.  Position  and  Character  of  William.  —  However  much  William 
may  have  insisted  that  he  was  simply  one  of  the  legitimate  line 
of  English  kings,  his  position  was  very  different  from  theirs  and 


112  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND 

vastly  more  powerful.  He  had  in  reality  a  threefold  basis  for  his 
authority  as  king  :  he  was  in  the  first  place  the  elected,  anointed, 
and  crowned  king  of  the  English  nation ;  secondly,  he  was  the 
military  conqueror  of  England;  lastly,  he  was  the  feudal  over- 
lord of  the  country,  with  a  certain  degree  of  proprietorship  of  all 
the  landed  estates  of  England.  Although  he  had  given  a  large 
part  of  the  confiscated  lands  to  his  Norman  barons  and  knights, 
yet  he  had  given  these  only  on  condition  of  faithfulness,  military 
service,  and  money  payments  to  himself.  Because  of  these  ele- 
ments of  power  he  was  in  a  position  to  carry  on  a  government 
vigorous,  firm,  assertive,  and  even  despotic,  far  beyond  anything 
before  known  in  England,  and  to  exercise  an  enduring  influence 
on  the  destinies  of  his  people.  This  power  is  well  shown  by  what 
has  been  called  the  "  Salisbury  Oath."  In  1086,  at  the  very  close 
of  his  career,  William  appointed  a  great  mote  or  council  at  Salis- 
bury, to  which  all  landholders  were  summoned.  There  he  made 
all  take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  him  which  was  to  take  precedence 
of  any  other  duty  they  owed  to  any  lords  who  might  be  between 
them  and  the  king. 

No  satisfactory  picture  of  the  Conqueror  remains,  but  there 
are  several  descriptions  of  him  by  men  who  knew  him  well.  He 
was  a  man  of  good  stature  and  figure,  though  he  became  very 
stout  in  his  later  years.  He  was  slightly  bald  on  the  forehead.  His 
expression  was  usually  stern,  as  might  be  expected  from  his  char- 
acter and  experiences ;  and  he  gave  way  to  terrible  outbursts  of 
anger  in  which  he  roared  out  his  favorite  oath,  "  By  the  splendor 
of  God,"  to  the  dismay  of  all  who  heard  him.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  could  be  courteous  and  kindly  in  manner.  He  was 
religious  in  his  habits,  listening  to  mass  every  day.  His  ability, 
his  energy,  his  directness  of  decision  and  action,  and  his  invincible 
determination  are  better  seen  in  what  he  did  than  in  anything 
that  can  be  said  of  him. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  he  had  three  sons  and  a  daughter.  On 
his  deathbed  he  expressed  a  wish  that  the  following  arrangement 


-  r-r  e-  r  ear  nr-femp-vi-W'  -iTfcr'-~ 


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*  •  -v  ACT  m  •    V 


TT,CI*OVCM  bg-  ^cmo 


A  Page  of  Domesday  Book 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS      113 

of  inheritances  should  be  made  for  them.  His  eldest  son,  Robert, 
should  be  duke  of  Normandy ;  the  next  son,  William,  king  of 
England ;  and  the  third,  Henry,  a  mere  boy,  should  be  given  a 
certain  sum  of  money.  His  daughter,  Adela,  was  already  married 
to  Stephen,  count  of  Blois,  a  French  province.1 

91.  William  II  and  his  Contest  with  the  Barons. — William  II, 
who  became  king  at  his  father's  death  in  1087,  had  a  stormy 
reign  of  thirteen  years.  He  was  killed  by  an  accident  while  still 
only  forty  years  of  age.  He  was  called  William  "  Rufus,"  probably 
because  he  was  red-faced.2  He  had  the  energy,  the  harshness, 
and  much  of  the  ability  of  his  father,  but  he  had  neither  the 
clearness  of  aim  nor  the  sense  of  duty  which  had  made  his  father's 
policy  so  successful. 

Two  contests  filled  much  of  his  reign, — one  with  the  great 
Norman  barons,  the  other  with  the  church.  The  great  nobles 
who  had  gained  as  a  result  of  the  Conquest  such  extensive  landed 
estates  in  England  in  many  cases  still  retained  their  estates  in 
Normandy.  They  were  so  powerful  because  of  the  income  they 
received  and  of  the  number  of  men  who  must  obey  their  sum- 
mons to  follow  them  in  war  that  they  were  almost  independent 
princes.  It  was  hard  for  such  men  to  submit  to  the  strict  rule 
of  the  king,  to  respect  his  officials,  pay  his  taxes,  and  abide  by 
his  laws.  The  hand  of  the  Conqueror  had  been  heavy  enough  to 
keep  them  in  obedience ;  but  his  successor  seemed  more  like 
one  of  themselves,  and  they  were  not  willing  to  submit  to  him 
without  a  struggle.  A  group  of  them  therefore  entered  into  a 

1  The  Norman  line  of  kings  with  their  genealogy  was  as  follows : 


William  I,  1066-1087 

Robert,  duke  of  Normandy 
died  1135 

William 
died  1128 

William  II         Henry  I 
1087-1100        1100-1135 

Matilda 
died  1167 

Adela 

Stephen 
1135-1154 

The  Latin  word  rufus  means  reddish. 


114  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

conspiracy  to  drive  William  Rufus  from  the  throne  and  to  place 
on  it  his  brother  Robert,  duke  of  Normandy,  who  was  of  an  easy- 
going disposition,  and  would  not  be  likely  to  rule  very  strictly 
those  to  whom  he  owed  his  throne.  Immediately  after  the 
Conqueror's  death,  therefore,  the  rebellious  nobles  drove  the  king's 
men  out  of  the  royal  castles  in  a  number  of  towns,  introduced 
garrisons  and  supplies  into  these  castles  and  their  own  fortified 
houses,  and  began  ravaging  the  surrounding  country.  Several  of 
the  earls  and  many  of  the  lesser  barons,  on  the  other  hand,  took 
the  part  of  the  king. 

William's  most  valuable  support,  however,  came  from  another 
quarter.  He  called  a  great  gathering  at  London  to  which  men 
of  English  birth  of  the  well-to-do  classes  were  specially  invited. 
He  promised  to  give  them  reduced  taxes,  freer  hunting  rights, 
and  a  better  administration  of  the  law,  and  called  upon  them  to 
join  him  in  putting  down  the  rebellious  barons.  He  also  sum- 
moned the  old  fyrd  of  the  southeastern  counties.  The  English 
willingly  joined  the  king  in  opposition  to  the  Norman  aristocracy, 
and  in  a  short  time  an  effective  army  was  created.  Rufus  was 
thus  able  to  defeat  the  disobedient  nobles  and  force  them  to 
acknowledge  him.  A  few  years  later,  in  1095,  he  had  an  equally 
hard  and  successful  struggle  with  a  group  of  the  great  barons  who 
asserted  practical  independence  and  would  have  dethroned  him 
to  obtain  it  if  they  could  have  accomplished  it. 

William  was  loath  to  accept  the  arrangement  of  his  father  by 
which  his  brother  Robert  was  given  the  duchy  of  Normandy. 
He  was  ambitious  to  possess  all  the  dominions  which  his  father 
had  ruled.  Through  his  whole  reign,  therefore,  whenever  he  was 
not  himself  being  troubled  by  the  disobedience  of  the  barons,  he 
was  either  intriguing  or  fighting  to  get  Normandy  and  the  other 
continental  dominions  of  the  Norman  house  into  his  hands.  One 
by  one  he  got  control  of  fortified  places  and  their  dependent 
districts  and  hemmed  in  the  immediate  dominions  of  Robert. 
Finally  Robert  went  on  a  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land,  leaving  the 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS 


government  of  the  whole  duchy  in  the  hands  of  William  in  return 
for  money  with  which  to  equip  his  expedition.  William  got  the 
money  by  laying  a  heavy  Danegeld  on  the  English. 

92.  Lanfranc. — Unlike  his  father,  William  Rufus  was  not  a 
religious  man.  Indeed,  although  it  was  an  age  when  almost  every 
one  expressed  and  probably  even  felt  great  reverence  for  all  reli- 
gious things,  William  ridiculed  such  matters.  When  some  one 
declared  that  an  event  was  the  will  of  God  he  laughed  aloud; 
when  it  was  proposed  to  pray 
to  the  saints  for  aid  he  for- 
bade it ;  and  when  the  ordeal 
once  indicated  certain  men 
to  be  innocent  whom  he  be- 
lieved guilty  he  broke  out  in 
anger  and  shouted,  "  Who 
says  that  God  is  just  ?  "  He 
told  the  Jews,  who  had  begun 
to  settle  in  England  since  the 
Conquest,  that  he  was  quite 
open  to  conviction  of  the 
truth  of  their  religion  if  they 
could  refute  the  bishops  in 
an  open  debate  before  him. 
When  some  Jews  of  Rouen  chapel  ln  white  Tower 

went  over  to  Christianity  he 

agreed  for  a  price  offered  by  their  friends  to  force  them  to  go 
back  to  Judaism.  With  such  views  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  con- 
flicts on  church  matters  that  could  not  be  avoided  even  between 
pious  kings  and  churchmen  should  have  broken  out  with  special 
bitterness  under  William  Rufus. 

When  he  became  king  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had 
been  his  father's  right-hand  man  during  most  of  his  reign,  was  still 
living.  This  was  Lanfranc.  He  was  by  birth  an  Italian,  a  native  of 
the  city  of  Pavia,  and  educated  there  as  a  lawyer.  From  Italy  he 


Il6  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

emigrated  or  perhaps  was  exiled  to  Normandy.  Here  he  became 
famous  as  a  teacher  and  man  of  learning,  and  under  pressure  of 
religious  influences  became  a  monk.  When  he  was  made  prior 
of  the  Abbey  of  Bee  he  became  still  more  famous ;  many  men  of 
religion  sought  that  monastery  and  students  came  to  study  under 
him.  William  while  still  only  duke  of  Normandy  came  to  know 
him  and  sent  him  two  or  three  times  on  embassies  to  Rome  and 
elsewhere.  After  the  Conquest,  when  the  archbishopric  of  Can- 
terbury became  vacant  through  the  deposition  of  its  last  Saxon 
incumbent,  Lanfranc  was  induced  somewhat  reluctantly  to  accept 
that  position.  For  many  years  he  was  the  principal  adviser  of 
the  king  and  the  most  influential  man  in  England.  There  was 
much  in  his  position  and  character  similar  to  those  of  Dunstan  a 
hundred  years  before,  although  the  two  men  were  far  different  in 
race,  had  very  different  kings  to  serve,  and  belonged  to  entirely 
different  epochs.  He  was  an  extensive  and  learned  writer,  and 
his  Latin  letters  are  still  read. 

In  political  matters  Lanfranc  showed  good  judgment;  he 
selected  wisely  those  whom  he  advised  the  king  to  appoint  to 
office,  and  exercised  his  own  influence  over  the  king  in  the 
direction  of  moderation  and  good  sense.  In  religious  affairs  he 
insisted  on  the  supremacy  of  the  position  of  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury over  all  other  church  positions  in  England,  even  over  the 
archbishopric  of  York,  and  thus  made  the  church  organization 
more  centralized.  He  held  frequent  councils,  sometimes  of  the 
prelates  of  all  England  and  sometimes  of  those  of  his  own  arcb- 
bishopric  only.  His  superior  gifts  and  training  as  an  Italian  and 
as  a  lawyer  gave  him  wide  influence  not  only  over  the  king,  the 
barons,  and  other  churchmen,  but  over  Welsh,  Irish,  and  Scotch 
chieftains  and  bishops  who  sent  to  obtain  his  advice  or  decision 
on  difficult  questions.  It  was  he  who  exercised  the  influence 
necessary  to  have  the  dwelling  places  of  the  bishops  removed  from 
the  villages  where  they  had  been  established  in  early  times  to  a 
large  town  in  each  diocese.  So  long  as  Lanfranc  lived,  William  II 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS      1 1/ 

was  somewhat  overawed  by  him  and  submitted  to  his  influence. 
But  his  death  occurred  two  years  after  that  of  the  Conqueror  and 
left  the  new  king  with  no  such  restraint. 

93.  Misgovernment  of  the  Church  by  William.  —  When  bishop- 
rics, abbacies,  and  other  positions  in  the  church  became  vacant 
by  the  death  or  promotion  of  their  former  holders  it  had  been 
customary  to  fill  them  promptly  with  new  appointees.     In  the 
meanwhile  some  one  was  appointed  to  receive  the  income  of  the 
office  while  it  was  vacant  and  to  retain  this  for  the  new  incum- 
bent.    William  Rufus  now  began  the  practice  of  keeping  such 
positions  vacant  for  months  or  even  years  and  himself  collecting 
and  using  the  income.    When  Lanfranc  died  more  than  four  years 
passed  away  before  any  one  was  appointed  to  the  archbishopric 
of  Canterbury,  and  other  positions  were  treated  in  the  same  way. 
Even  when  appointments  were  made,  the  king  had  a  habit  of 
retaining  some  of  the  lands  which  belonged  to  the  church,  and 
he  frequently  gave  offices  to  those  churchmen  who  offered  him 
payment  for  the  appointment.1     Morals  were  very  bad  throughout 
the  country,  but  the  king  refused  to  stand  by  the  church  authori- 
ties in  punishing  immorality,  and  he  himself  set  an  example  of 
flagrant  wickedness. 

94.  Anselm.  —  In    these  actions  William  met  an  outspoken 
opponent  in   the   new  archbishop  of  Canterbury.     For  he  was 
finally  scared  by  a  sudden  fit  of  sickness  into  making  an  appoint- 
ment to  that  position,  and  the  popular  voice  forced  Anselm,  the 
abbot  of  Bee,  upon  him.     Anselm  was  an  Italian,  like  Lanfranc, 
and  had  been  attracted  by  the  fame  of  the  latter  to  come  to  Bee 
in  Normandy  to  study.     He  had  become  abbot  after  Lanfranc's 
departure.     He  was  a  man  of  studious  habits,  keen  intellectual 
abilities,  devout  nature,  and  lovable  character,  and  would  have 

1  The  appointment  of  ecclesiastics  to  church  positions  in  return  for  a 
gift  of  money  is  known  as  the  offense  of  simony,  because  Simon  Magus 
had  offered  money  to  the  apostles  Peter  and  John  in  order  that  he  might 
obtain  supernatural  powers  like  theirs. 


A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


much  preferred  to  live  the  quiet  life  of  a  monastic  scholar.  The 
practical  duties  of  abbot  had,  however,  fallen  to  his  lot,  and  he 
was  now  drawn  into  the  still  more  active  duties  of  archbishop  of 
Canterbury.  During  several  years  he  was  engaged  in  a  continual 
contest  with  the  king,  who  on  getting  well  from  his  sickness  refused 
to  complete  the  investiture  of  Anselm,  held  back  part  of  the  lands 
belonging  to  the  archbishopric,  insisted  on  a  contribution  toward 

the  expense  of  his  wars  which  would 
have  compelled  the  archbishop  to 
overtax  his  tenants,  and  recklessly 
cursed  Anselm  when  he  rebuked  him 
for  his  sinful  life.  After  several  years 
of  such  conflict,  Anselm  gave  up  the 
struggle  and  went  into  voluntary  exile 
on  the  continent,  carrying  nothing 
with  him  except  his  necessary  cloth- 
ing and  the  manuscript  of  a  half- 
finished  Latin  theological  work,  and 
hoping  to  be  allowed  by  the  pope  to 
resign  from  his  archbishopric  alid 
retire  to  his  quiet  scholar's  life. 

95.  Hatred  of  William  Rufus.— 
The  king  gradually  came  to  be  very 
much  hated  by  his  subjects.     His 

military  abilities  and  energetic  campaigns  saved  his  crown  and  his 
dominions,  but  the  heavy  taxes  and  oppressions  which  they  required 
made  the  people  almost  desperate.  The  government  was  carried 
on  apparently  for  the  one  object  of  getting  money  for  the  king's 
uses.  His  servants  and  soldiers  were  allowed  by  him  to  seize 
whatever  they  wanted  from  the  people  without  any  attempt  at 
restraint.  His  offenses  against  religion  and  the  church  angered 
many  others,  though,  as  all  the  contemporary  historians  were 
churchmen,  no  doubt  they  have  given  him  a  worse  reputation  in 
history  than  he  might  otherwise  have  had. 


Norman  Arched  Gateway  and 
Tower,  St.  Edmundsbury, 
built  either  in  the  Reign  of 
William  I  or  of  William  II 


ENGLAND   UNDER   THE    NORMANS  119 

William's  principal  minister  and  adviser  was,  strange  to  say,  a 
churchman,  Ranulfor  Ralph  "  Flambard,"1  one  of  the  Conqueror's 
Norman  chaplains.  By  his  business  ability,  legal  sharpness,  and 
constant  work  he  became  practically  head  of  the  whole  govern- 
ment under  the  king,  and  to  him  were  attributed  many  of  the 
oppressions  which  made  William  II  so  unpopular.  Above  all, 
it  was  he  who  made  government  a  device  for  extorting  money 
from  everybody.  Ralph  was  rewarded  by  the  king  by  being  made 
bishop  of  Durham.  This  position  was  practically. a  great  earldom 
as  well  as  one  of  the  richest  offices  of  the  church,  and  had  already 
lain  vacant  for  three  and  a  half  years. 

One  day  in  the  summer  of  1 100  the  king's  body,  with  an  arrow 
through  the  heart,  was  found  in  the  New  Forest,  where  he  had 
been  hunting.  Who  shot  the  arrow  has  always  remained  a  mys- 
tery, though  early  tradition  declared  that  he  was  accidentally 
killed  by  Walter  Tirrel,  an  intimate  friend  and  favorite  courtier, 
who  in  his  horror  at  what  he  had  done  took  to  flight,  and  died 
long  afterwards  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem.  The  king's  body 
was  brought  to  Winchester  on  a  cart  by  some  foresters  and 
gamekeepers  and  buried  in  the  minster  there  without  religious 
services. 

96.  Henry  I. — William's  younger  brother  Henry  was  hunting 
with  him  in  the  forest  when  the  death  of  the  king  occurred,  while 
his  older  brother,  Robert,  was  far  away  in  Italy,  slowly  making  his 
way  home  from  the  Holy  Land.  Henry  was  ambitious  and  ener- 
getic. He  had  been  born  in  England  during  the  reign  of  his 
father,  and  was  now  in  the  prime  of  early  manhood,  being  but 
thirty-two  years  old.  He  had  small  difficulty  therefore  in  indu- 
cing a  number  of  the  bishops  and  nobles  to  choose  him  king,  not- 
withstanding the  better  claims  of  his  older  brother. 

The  questionable  character  of  Henry's  right  to  the  throne  led 
him  to  make  every  effort  to  obtain  popularity  and  thus  strengthen 

1  Flambard  means  "  The  Torch,"  presumably  so  called  because  he 
consumed  men's  goods. 


120  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

his  position.  Therefore,  in  addition  to  the  traditional  coronation 
oath  which  his  brother  and  father  and  their  predecessors  had 
taken,  he  drew  up  a  charter  or  series  of  promises  of  good  gov- 
ernment, of  which  he  had  a  copy  made  and  sent  to  the  sheriff 
of  each  county  in  England  to  be  read  in  the  shire  court.1  It 
includes  a  number  of  promises  not  to  do  certain  things  which 
were  widely  felt  to  be  oppressive,  and  in  it  the  king  declared,  "  A 
firm  peace  in  my  whole  kingdom  I  establish  and  require  to  be 
kept  from  henceforth.  The  law  of  King  Edward  I  give  to  you 
again  with  those  changes  with  which  my  father  changed  it  by  the 
counsel  of  his  barons."  The  times  before  the  Conquest  were 
already  coming  to  be  looked  back  upon  as  a  golden  age,  as  the 
"  good  old  times."  Men  forgot  all  the  miserable  confusion  and 
barbarism  of  that  period,  and  a  promise  of  the  law  of  Edward 
the  Confessor  was  considered  equivalent  to  a  promise  of  good 
government.  The  charter  also  provided  that  the  barons  should 
give  to  their  dependents  the  same  good  treatment  which  the  king 
promised  to  the  higher  classes  to  whom  it  was  directed,  thus 
recognizing  the  right  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people  to  be  well 
governed.  The  king  gave  proof  of  the  earnestness  of  his  inten- 
tion to  keep  order  by  arresting  Ranulf  Flambard  and  punishing 
disorderly  nobles. 

In  other  ways  Henry  sought  popularity,  especially  with  the 
English  element  among  his  subjects.  He  chose  for  his  wife  a 
lady  descended  from  the  old  English  royal  line,  Edith  (Anglo- 
Saxon  Eadgyth),  who  was-  renamed  Matilda  or  Maud,  her  English 
name  being  unpronounceable  by  the  French-speaking  Normans. 
As  a  result  of  this  union  all  the  rulers  of  England  since  Henry, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Stephen,  his  immediate  successor, 
have  been  descended  not  only  from  William  the  Conqueror 

1  This  charter  may  be  found  translated  in  Translations  and  Reprints, 
Vol.  I,  No.  6,  p.  5.  The  most  important  sections  are  i,  2,  3,  4,  8,  10,  12, 
and  13.  It  was  the  first  written  restriction  upon  the  despotism  of  the  king, 
and  long  afterwards  became  the  foundation  of  Magna  Carta. 


ENGLAND   UNDER   THE    NORMANS  121 

but  from  the  kings  of  the  old  West  Saxon  line,  running  back  to 
Cerdic,  its  founder.1 

Henry's  natural  abilities  also  helped  to  make  him  popular  or  at 
least  successful  as  a  ruler.  He  was  a  well-educated  man  for  his  time 
and  was  therefore  nicknamed  "  Beauclerc,"  or  the  fine  scholar. 
He  could  probably  read  and  write  French,  his  native  language, 
read  and  write  some  Latin,  and  understand  English  when  it  was 
spoken.  He  was  always  fond  of  books  and  generous  to  men 
of  learning.  Another  name  sometimes  applied  to  him  was  the 
"  Lion  of  Justice,"  because  of  the  sternness  and  yet  fairness  with 
which  he  settled  disputes  and  put  down  all  disorders  on  the  part 
of  the  barons  or  other  lawless  persons.  He  was  as  good  a  soldier 
as  his  brother  William,  though  not  so  fond  of  fighting  for  its  own 
sake,  and  he  was  much  abler  as  a  peaceful  ruler.  Thus  Henry 
was  able  to  make  good  his  position  as  king,  and  reigned  for 
thirty-five  years.  He  also  obtained  Normandy,  partly  by  nego- 
tiation, partly  by  conquest,  from  his  brother  Robert,  whom  he 
kept  in  captivity  during  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

1  This  line  of  descent,  with  the  omission  of  many  intervening  links,  is 

as  follows : 

Cerdic 
Egbert 
Alfred 
Ethelred  the  Unready 


Edward  the  Confessor 


Edgar  yEtheling  Margaret  William  the  Conqueror 

Edith , Henry  I 

Matilda 

Henry  II 

Victoria 

Edward  VII 


122  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

97.  Conflict  with  the  Church.  —  Notwithstanding  Henry's  abil- 
ities and  success  the  same  two  conflicts  which  had  filled  so  much 
of  the  reign  of  William  Rufus  confronted  him  in  the  early  years 
of  his  reign,  —  a  contest  with  the  church  authorities  and  a  con- 
test with  the  great  nobles. 

The  particular  form  of  trouble  in  church  matters  that  had  been 
prominent  in  his  brother's  time  was  readily  settled.  Henry  did 
not  keep  church  positions  vacant  in  order  to  collect  and  use  their 
income,  but  filled  them  promptly  and  with  capable  if  somewhat 
worldly  men.  He  restored  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  allowed 
church  councils  to  be  held,  and  helped  the  clergy  to  put  in  force 
the  rules  for  church  discipline  enacted  at  them.  His  own  religious 
habits  and  feelings  were  also  regular,  and  his  treatment  of  church- 
men was  respectful  and  pleasant.  But  other  troubles  soon  arose. 

The  powers  of  oversight  of  church  matters  exercised  by  the 
central  government  of  the  church  at  Rome  were  at  this  time,  as 
has  been  said  before,  great  and  continually  increasing.  They 
had  never  been  asserted  in  their  fullness  in  England.  When  the 
Conqueror  refused  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  pope  and 
laid  down  the  further  rule  that  no  representative  of  the  pope  or 
official  letter  from  the  pope  should  be  sent  into  England  without 
his  consent,  those  claims  were  quietly  dropped  for  the  time.  The 
church  quarrels  of  William  Rufus  had  been  on  internal  questions 
not  affecting  the  pope.  Many  church  customs  therefore  still 
existed  in  England  different  from  those  approved  by  the  pope  and 
the  general  church  councils.  While  Anselm  had  been  in  exile  at 
Rome  during  the  latter  part  of  William's  reign  he  had  become 
fully  imbued  with  a  belief  in  the  authority  of  the  pope  to  enforce 
general  church  regulations  in  England  as  in  other  countries ;  and 
when  on  Henry's  invitation  he  came  back  to  fill  his  position 
as  archbishop  of  Canterbury  he  came  determined  to  carry  out 
these  rules.  To  some  of  them  the  king  had  no  objection.  For 
instance,  the  old  teaching  that  it  was  better  for  clergymen  not  to 
marry  had  now  been  made  so  stringent  as  positively  to  forbid  any 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS 


I23 


churchmen  except  those  of  the  lowest  grades  to  be  married. 
From  this  time  forward  this  stricter  rule  was  enforced  more  or 
less  fully  and  successfully  in  England. 

98.  The  Contest  about  Investiture.  —  One  proposed  change, 
however,  brought  Anselm  and  Henry  into  immediate  conflict. 
This  was  in  the  matter  of  investitures.  It  had  been  customary 
in  England  for  a  bishop  or  abbot  after  his  appointment  to  his 
bishopric  or  abbey  to  be  "  invested,"  as  it  was  called,  by  the  king, 
with  a  ring  and  a  staff  as  emblems  of  his  office.  On  the  same 
occasion  he  did  homage  to  the  king.  That  is  to  say,  he 'knelt 
before  the  king  and  took  an  oath  to 
be  faithful  to  him.  This  was  followed 
by  the  consecration,  a  religious  serv- 
ice in  which  the  new  bishop  or  abbot 
was  inducted  by  the  archbishop  or 
some  other  bishops  into  the  reli- 
gious functions  of  his  position.  The 
custom  of  investiture  by  the  king 
before  consecration  no  doubt  arose 
from  the  fact  that  bishops  and  abbots 
were  practically  great  noblemen, 
having  extensive  lands  and  powers, 
quite  apart  from  their  religious  posi- 
tion. But  in  1075  this  custom  of  receiving  investiture  from  kings 
or  other  princes  and  performing  homage  to  them  was  forbidden 
by  the  pope,  and  Anselm  consequently  refused  to  pay  homage  to 
Henry,  or  to  consecrate  any  bishops  or  abbots  who  had  accepted 
investiture  from  him  or  done  homage  to  him.  Henry  on  the 
other  hand  refused  to  give  up  the  old  established  custom  of  Eng- 
land in  this  respect  and  would  not  allow  churchmen  to  be  con- 
secrated without  previous  investiture  and  homage.  This  dispute 
lasted  for  several  years  and  led  to  innumerable  conferences, 
embassies  to  the  pope,  and  efforts  at  settlement.  But  all  were 
without  success,  and  for  a  second  time  Anselm  left  England. 


Investiture  of  an  Abbot  (from 
a  manuscript  of  the  thir- 
teenth century) 


124  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

As  a  matter  of  fact  a  bishop's  or  abbot's  position  was  twofold. 
From  one  point  of  view  he  was  an  officer  of  the  church,  and  it 
seemed  natural  that  his  appointment  should  be  entirely  a  church 
matter.  From  another  point  of  view  he  was  a  landholding  noble, 
with  vassals  who  must  fight  when  summoned,  and  the  king 
might  fairly  claim  the  right  to  insist  on  his  taking  an  oath  of  faith- 
fulness to  him.  Henry's  moderation  and  reasonableness,  and 
Anselm's  goodness,  notwithstanding  his  obstinacy,  kept  the  quar- 
rel from  becoming  as  bitter  as  it  might  have  been.  Finally, 
in  1 1 06,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  pope,  a  compromise  was 
agreed  to.  All  those  who  had  already  received  investiture  from 
the  king  should  be  consecrated  to  their  offices  by  the  arch- 
bishop. For  the  future  the  king  gave  up  investiture,  but  retained 
homage.  He  acknowledged  that  investiture  with  ring  and  staff 
was  the  conveyance  of  a  spiritual  office  and  left  it  to  the  church 
authorities.  On  the  other  hand,  the  temporal  rights  of  the  king 
were  acknowledged,  and  each  bishop  or  abbot  chosen  was  to 
swear  homage  to  the  king  before  being  consecrated.  Henry  thus 
obtained  what  was  practically  a  victory,  and,  to  the  general  satis- 
faction, Anselm  returned  to  England. 

99.  Contest  with  the  Barons.  — The  great  earls  and  barons, 
especially  those  with  possessions  both  in  England  and  Normandy, 
were  no  more  ready  to  be  orderly  and  submissive  under  Henry 
than  they  had  been  under  William  Rufus,  and  a  rebellion  soon 
broke  out.  The  principal  struggle  was  with  Robert  of  Belleme, 
earl  of  Shrewsbury.  This  man  possessed  six  castles  and  the  broad 
lands  dependent  on  them,  on  the  borders  of  Wales  and  in  the 
center  and  north  of  England.  Two  of  his  brothers  who  had 
joined  with  him  also  held  extensive  estates.  He  is  said  to  have 
had  thirty-four  strongholds  in  his  possession  or  under  his  direct 
influence  in  Normandy.  Against  this  powerful  nobleman  and 
his  confederates  Henry  waged  two  successful  campaigns,  in  1102 
and  1106.  In  the  first  of  these  Robert's  castles  were  besieged 
and  captured,  be  himself  banished  from  England,  and  his  estates 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   NORMANS  125 

confiscated  ;  in  the  second,  in  Normandy,  he  and  all  his  adherents 
in  the  duchy  were  defeated  and  he  was  placed  in  imprisonment 
for  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

100.  The  Central  Government.  —  But  Henry's  most  effective 
method  of  keeping  the  strong  and  turbulent  nobility  in  order 
was  not  by  carrying  on  military  campaigns  against  them  but  by 
strengthening  the  organization  of  the  central  government.     He 
chose  capable  ministers  and  with  their  help  made  the  government 
so  strong  and  active  that  the  barons  were  not  able  to  resist  it. 
They,  like  common  men,  had  to  pay  taxes,  keep  the  peace,  and 
submit  to  the  decisions  of  the  courts,  however  much  they  might 
long  for  greater  independence  or  chafe  under  such  restrictions. 

The  central  government  had  been  stronger  and  better  organ- 
ized ever  since  the  Conquest  than  it  had  been  at  any  time  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  period,  but  its  principal  development  was  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  I.  Great  councils,  the  successors  of  the  witena- 
gemots,  were  held  more  frequently,  though  their  power  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  king  was  really  less.  In  addition  to  the 
ceremonial  meetings  which  were  held  more  or  less  regularly  on 
the  three  great  festivals  of  the  year,  councils  of  the  nobles  and 
higher  clergy  were  called  from  time  to  time  when  matters  of 
importance  were  to  be  discussed,  and  the  king  made  a  show  at 
least  of  taking  their  advice  and  obtaining  their  consent  to  his 
more  important  actions. 

101.  The  King's  Ministers.  —  Several  of  the  great  nobles  held 
hereditary  offices  of  high  honor.     These  were  the  marshal,  stew- 
ard, constable,  and  chamberlain.     These  offices,  however,  were 
largely  honorary,  with  few  duties  or  powers.     The  actual  work  of 
government  was  done  by  a  number  of  ministers  or  officials  who 
were  chosen  by  the  king  not  from  the  great  noble  families  but 
from  the  lower  baronage,  or  else  were  churchmen  of  no  especial 
rank  or  position.     The  most  influential  minister  was  the  justiciar. 
He  was  the  king's  principal  representative,  looked  after  the  king's 
interest  in  all  ways,  gave  him  advice,  and  acted  as  regent  when 


126  A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  king  was  on  his  numerous  trips  to  Normandy.  Ranulf  Flam- 
bard  practically  occupied  such  a  position  under  William  Rufus, 
though  the  name  itself  was  not  used.  Under  Henry  a  certain 
Roger^  a  native  of  Caen  in  Normandy,  later  rewarded  by  the  king 
with  the  bishopric  of  Salisbury,  rose  through  various  degrees  of 
power  from  a  mere  chaplain  in  the  household  to  justiciar.  He 
retained  this  position  for  many  years,  organized  the  government, 
and  appointed  able  men  to  its  highest  positions. 

The  chancellor  was  the  minister  of  the  king  who  attended  to 
the  written  work  of  the  government.  It  was  he  who  had  charge 
of  the  king's  seal  and  made  out,  or  had  made  out  by  his  clerks, 
all  charters,  grants  of  land,  written  summons  to  nobles,  letters, 
and  other  documents.  The  king  relied  upon  the  chancellor  for 
the  knowledge  of  legal  forms  and  for  the  preservation  of  official 
records. 

The  treasurer  had  charge  of  the  government  funds,  and  kept 
account  of  receipts  and  disbursements  of  them.  When  all  money 
consisted  of  silver  coins  which  had  frequently  to  be  weighed  and 
counted,  sometimes  transported  in  boxes  and  at  other  times  stored 
in  safety,  the  treasurer  necessarily  required  a  large  corps  of  assist- 
ants. Besides  these  principal  officials  and  their  immediate  sub- 
ordinates the  king  had  in  his  employ  other  trained  men  who  were 
known  simply  as  ministers  or  justices,  who  performed  various  duties 
of  government  of  a  financial,  judicial,  or  administrative  kind. 

102.  The  Curia  Regis. — The  various  ministers  of  the  king  not 
only  had  each  his  separate  work  but  they  met  from  time  to  time 
to  attend  jointly  to  matters  of  importance  which  needed  consul- 
tation and  the  united  authority  of  all  those  who  directly  repre- 
sented the  king.  When  the  ministers  met  in  this  way  they  were 
usually  known  as  the  "curia  regis"  This  body  must  not,  however, 
be  confused  with  the  occasional  meetings  cf  the  great  nobles  and 
churchmen  already  referred  to,  though  some  of  the  men  might,  of 
course,  attend  both,  and  even  the  same  name,  "  king's  council," 
is  sometimes  applied  to  both.  Before  the  curia  regis  lawsuits 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS      127 

between  the  barons  were  tried,  and  complaints  against  individual 
barons  were  brought  by  the  king  or  in  his  name.  There  were 
also  many  suits  about  land  or  payments  in  which  the  king  was 
interested.  Sometimes,  though  rarely,  the  king  himself  sat  with 
his  ministers  in  the  curia  regis,  took  part  in  the  discussions,  and 
delivered  the  decisions.  Gradually  all  the  most  important  cases 
were  taken  out  of  the  county  and  hundred  courts  to  be  settled  in 
the  curia  regis.  Thus  it  became  more  and  more  largely  occupied 
with  judicial  matters  and  came  to  be  more  of  a  court  in  the  mod- 
ern legal  sense  of  the  word,  less  of  a  mere  meeting  of  the  king's 
ministers. 

103.  Justices  on  Circuit. — The  ministers  had  to  be  with  the 
king  as  much  as  possible,  so  they  followed  him  in  his  more  exten- 
sive journeys,  and  the  meetings  of  the  curia  had  to  be  held  where 
he  and' his  ministers  happened  to  be.  This  caused  great  difficulty 
to  suitors.  Many  lawsuits  besides  could  only  be  satisfactorily 
tried  in  the  neighborhood  where  the  matters  at  issue  were  known 
about.  To  meet  these  two  difficulties  justices  representing  the 
whole  curia  regis  were  sent  from  time  to  time  into  different  parts 
of  England  with  authority  to  settle  all  suits.  Their  presence  in 
that  part  of  the  country  could  be  made  use  of  to  collect  money, 
enforce  military  service,  and  in  other  ways  carry  out  the  rights 
and  claims  of  the  king.  Gradually  it  became  so  customary  to 
send  royal  justices  through  the  country  that  regular  circuits 
were  established.1  Thus  the  power  of  the  central  government, 
exercised  through  the  king's  ministers,  was  shown  in  every  part 
of  the  country  regularly  and  frequently  and  not  merely  when  the 
king  swept  through  with  his  fighting  men  on  a  military  expedi- 
tion. The  power  of  the  government  was  respected  accordingly. 
.104.  The  Exchequer. — Two  meetings  of  the  king's  ministers 
every  year,  one  at  Easter,  the  other  at  Michaelmas  (September  29), 

1  These  royal  officials  or  judges  were  known  as  "justices  in  eyre."  The 
custom  of  judges  going  on  circuit  has  been  customary  in  all  English-speaking 
countries  ever  since. 


128  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

were  of  special  importance  and  were  distinguished  clearly  from 
the  ordinary  sitting  of  the  curia  regis.  These  meetings  were 
known  as  the  sittings  of  the  "  Exchequer."  The  ministers  and  their 
clerks  gathered  around  a  long  table  on  which  certain  squares  were 
marked  for  ease  of  calculation  of  accounts  by  means  of  coins  or 
counters  laid  upon  them.  The  table  and  the  meeting  around  it 
were  called  the  Exchequer  from  this  similarity  to  a  checkerboard. 
Before  this  court  the  sheriffs  of  the  shires  and  the  representatives 
of  the  great  nobles  had  to  present  themselves  one  by  one  and 
give  account  of  the  taxes,  dues,  and  fines  which  it  was  their  duty 
to  collect  or  to  pay.  All  disputes  were  settled  then  and  there, 
the  chancellor,  treasurer,  and  others  deciding  on  the  law  as  it 
applied  to  the  cases  that  came  up.  The  Exchequer  was,  there- 
fore, a  law  court  as  well  as  an  accounting  office.  The  payments 
and  decisions  were  recorded  on  a  wide  strip  of  parchment  which 
from  its  appearance  when  rolled  up  was  known  as  the  Pipe  Roll, 
or  Great  Roll  of  the  Pipe.  The  earliest  of  these  account  rolls 
which  still  exists  is  that  which  records  the  two  meetings  of  the 
thirty-first  year  of  Henry  I,  1130-1131,  all  others  of  Henry's 
reign  having  been  lost  or  destroyed.  The  condition  of  the 
account  with  each  sheriff  was  shown  by  giving  him  one  half  of 
a  tally,  the  other  half  of  which  was  preserved  until  the  next 
meeting  of  the  Exchequer. 

By  means  of  the  meetings  of  the  Exchequer  not  only  was  the 
king's  revenue  kept  in  order  and  collected  in  its  full  amount, 
but  the  sheriffs,  who  were  usually  knights,  were  kept  to  a  strict 
accountability,  and  forced  to  recognize  the  power  and  superiority 
of  the  government.  By  means  of  the  curia  regis,  the  circuit 
judges,  and  the  Exchequer,  the  power  of  government  under 
Henry  I  became  almost  irresistible. 

105.  The  Succession. — The  king's  only  son,  William,  was 
drowned  in  a  shipwreck  as  he  was  crossing  the  Channel  from 
Normandy  in  the  "White  Ship,"  with  a  number  of  his  relatives 
and  other  nobles,  leaving  as  Henry's  only  legitimate  child  a  daughter 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE    NORMANS  129 

named  Matilda.  Henry  tried  .the  experiment  of  obtaining  for 
her  the  inheritance  of  the  kingdom  of  England  and  the  duchy  of 
Normandy.  No  woman  had  ever  ruled  in  either  of  these  coun- 
tries. In  those  turbulent  times  it  was  impossible  that  she  should 
actually  carry  on  the  warfare  which  was  an  essential  part  of  the 
government,  and  the  result  would  be  that  her  husband,  whoever 
he  might  be,  would  become  practically  the  ruler.  Nevertheless 
Henry  induced  or  compelled  the  barons  to  take  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  Matilda  as  their  future  mistress  and  queen. 

She  was  married  to  Geoffrey,  count  of  Anjou,  one  of  the  most 
powerful  princes  of  France.  This  connection  was  a  valuable  one 
for  the  English  royal  family,  as  it  united  the  two  greatest  French 
provinces  in  their  possession  ;  but  it  was  extremely  unpopular  with 
the  barons  of  both  Normandy  and  England,  as  they  had  been  in 
frequent  warfare  with  the  count  and  the  barons  of  Anjou,  and 
looked  upon  them  as  natural  enemies.  All  that  could  be  done  to 
insure  the  acceptance  of  Matilda  as  queen  was  done  by  Henry, 
but  on  his  death  in  1135  all  the  arrangements  fell  promptly  to 
the  ground,  and  for  a  short  time  no  one  was  proclaimed  ruler. 

1 06.  King  Stephen.  — This  condition  of  doubt  was  broken  by 
the  claim  of  Stephen,  son  of  the  count  of  Blois  and  of  Adela, 
sister  of  King  Henry.  Stephen,  was  the  favorite  nephew  of 
Henry,  but  had  never  been  mentioned  as  his  successor.  He 
was  count  of  Mortagne  and  Boulogne,  and  held  many  estates  in 
Normandy  and  England.  His  younger  brother  was  bishop  of 
Winchester.  Soon  after  Henry's  death  Stephen  sailed  from  the 
continent  to  England,  appeared  at  London,  and  obtained  the 
good  will  of  the  leading  citizens  there.  He  then  went  to  Win- 
chester, got  possession  of  the  royal  treasure,  and  obtained  from 
a  number  of  the  higher  clergy  and  nobility  a  somewhat  reluctant 
consent  to  his  coronation.  He  also  obtained  recognition  in  Nor- 
mandy. Like  Henry,  Stephen  tried  to  increase  his  popularity 
and  strengthen  his  position  on  the  throne  by  issuing  a  charter  of 
liberties  which  made  the  same  promises  as  Henry  had  given. 


130  A  SHORT.  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Stephen's  authority,  however,  proved  to  depend  not  on  how 
much  power  he  chose  to  keep  and  how  much  to  grant,  but  on 
how  much  the  barons  would  leave  to  him.  The  powerful  earls 
and  barons  and  the  wealthy  and  influential  bishops  and  abbots 
had  only  been  kept  in  order,  as  has  been  seen,  by  the  heavy 
hand,  the  constant  activity,  or  the  wise  control  of  the  Conqueror 
and  his  two  sons.  Stephen  did  not  have  the  ability  necessary 
for  the  task.  He  was  handsome,  good-natured,  affectionate,  and 
brave,  but  he  was  not  a  skillful  general  nor  a  wise  ruler.  He  took 
everybody's  advice,  and  he  refused  to  punish  severely  those  who 
rebelled  against  him  and  were  captured.  He  was  misled  into 
quarreling  with  Roger  of  Salisbury,  the  old  justiciar,  and  arrested 
him  and  two  of  his  relatives  who  had  been  placed  in  the  positions 
of  chancellor  and  treasurer.  He  did  not  take  any  further  decisive 
action  against  them,  but  their  imprisonment  broke  up  the  admin- 
istration of  the  government,  as  it  had  been  carried  on  under 
Henry,  and  its  reorganization  amid  the  confusion  of  the  time 
proved  to  be  impossible.  The  meetings  of  the  Exchequer  were 
held  less  regularly,  the  curia  regis  seldom  gathered,  and  there 
were  no  regular  circuits  of  the  king's  justices.  The  government 
dropped  back  to  the  weak  condition  of  Saxon  times. 

107.  The  Civil  War.  — Soon  Matilda  asserted  her  claim  to 
Normandy  and  England.  She  came  over  to  England,  while  her 
husband  invaded  Normandy  in  her  name.  Many  of  the  barons 
took  her  side,  others  remained  faithful  to  Stephen,  and  a  civil 
war  broke  out  which  lasted  for  more  than  fifteen  years.  Earls, 
barons,  and  knights  took  first  one  side  and  then  the  other,  hold- 
ing their  castles  for  Matilda  at  one  time  and  for  Stephen  at 
another,  according  as  their  interests  or  their  feelings  might  dic- 
tate. In  fact,  the  barons  made  use  of  the  disputed  claim  to  the 
throne  to  live  in  practical  independence  of  any  king.  They  for- 
tified their  castles  by  permission  of  one  or  other  of  the  contestants, 
or  without  permission.  They  led  their  armed  knights  and  their 
tenants  to  take  part  on  either  side  in  the  war  or  to  fight  against 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   NORMANS  131 

other  nobles  with  whom  they  had  private  quarrels.  They  coined 
money  and  forced  the  people  on  their  estates  and  in  the  towns 
under  their  control  to  accept  it.  They  refused  to  acknowledge 
the  king's  court  or  the  decisions  of  the  county  and  hundred  courts. 
They  killed  the  king's  game  in  defiance  of  the  forest  laws. 

In  fact,  instead  of  England  being  ruled  by  one  government, 
there  were  hundreds  of  lords  of  higher  or  lower  degree  each 
acting  as  if  he  had  no  government  above  him  whatsoever.  This 
period  is  therefore  often  described  as  "  the  period  of  anarchy." 


Castle  Rising,  one  of  the  Baronial  Castles  fortified  in  Stephen's  Time 

Men  were  brutal  and  cruel  at  best  in  those  times.  Blinding  was 
a  common  punishment  for  political  prisoners  of  high  rank,  and 
the  cutting  off  of  hands  and  feet  for  culprits  of  lower  degree. 
Besiegers  of  a  castle,  when  they  had  made  its  master  or  some 
member  of  his  family  prisoner,  frequently  kept  him  without 
food,  and  displayed  him  to  the  besieged  daily  before  the  walls, 
so  that  the  sight  of  his  increasing  misery  might  lead  those  in  the 
castle  to  surrender.  There  were  frequent  instances  of  churches 
filled  with  men,  women,  and  children  being  burned  down  with 
all  that  were  in  them. 


132  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND 

When  the  weakness  of  Stephen  and  the  confusion  of  the  civil 
war  reduced  the  regular  government  to  powerlessness,  this  ten- 
dency to  reckless  brutality  and  outrage  became  vastly  worse. 
.Every  narrative  which  has  come  down  from  that  time  describes 
the  killing,  burning,  and  ravaging  which  were  prevalent.  The 
castles  of  the  nobles  were  places  of  violence,  where  the  ene- 
mies or  helpless  victims  of  the  lords  were  tortured  and  held  in 
imprisonment.  There  was  no  power  in  existence  which  could 
protect  the  weak  from  the  strong.  Every  one,  especially  every 
noble,  did  that  which  was  good  in  his  own  eyes. 

108.  The  Mediaeval  Castle.  —  The  power  of  the  nobles  to  act 
with  such  independence  when  a  weak  king  like  Stephen  was  on 
the  throne  was  due  largely  to  the  strength  of  the  castles  they 
occupied.  It  is  true  that  the  king  alone  was  considered  to  have 
the  right  to  build  fortified  places.  But  many  of  the  king's  castles 
were  occupied  in  his  name  by  individual  nobles ;  other  nobles 
obtained  the  royal  permission  to  fortify  their  houses;  and  still 
others,  especially  during  the  reign  of  Stephen,  built  strongholds 
without  permission  or  authority  from  any  one.  Thus  several  hun- 
dred castles  of  greater  or  less  size  and  strength  were  scattered  over 
England.  The  baron's  castle,  indeed,  was  the  most  conspicuous 
object  of  the  middle  ages.  On  the  crest  of  some  rugged  hill  was 
built  a  square  or  round  tower  with  thick  walls  pierced  by  nar- 
row windows  and  doors.  This  was  the  keep  or  donjon,  the  place 
of  greatest  strength  and  last  refuge  in  case  of  attack.  Around  it 
was  a  courtyard  with  various  buildings,  and  around  this  a  strong 
wall  with  towers  and  a  protected  gateway.  Outside  of  the  wall, 
if  the  place  admitted  of  it,  was  a  moat  or  wide  ditch  filled  with 
water.  This  was  crossed  by  a  drawbridge,  which  could  be  opened 
or  closed  at  will.  The  gateway  also  was  protected  by  a  portcullis 
or  drop  gate. 

In  ordinary  times  this  castle  was  occupied  only  by  a  small  num- 
ber of  persons, — the  baron  and  his  family  and  a  few  servants  or 
dependents  in  various  capacities.  Or  the  castle  might  be  one  of 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS 


133 


several  in  the  possession  of  a  great  noble,  and  only  occasionally 
visited  by  him,  at  other  times  being  occupied  by  some  official  with 
a  group  of  his  men.  Many  men  were,  however,  bound  to  come 
to  the  service  of  the  castle  in  case  of  need ;  and  in  time  of  danger 
the  people  of  the  neighborhood  crowded  within  its  defenses. 

109.  Feudal  Land  Tenure. — The  baron  who  occupied  such  a 
castle  drew  his  support  and  money  income  from  landed  estates. 
He  did  not,  however,  own  these  estates  as  a  modern  landowner 


Richmond  Castle,  Yorkshire 

does,  but  held  them  from  some  one  above  him,  on  certain  con- 
ditions. The  land  which  any  man  held  from  another  was  called 
his  fief  or,  in  Latin,  his  feudum.  The  custom  of  holding  lands 
on  certain  special  conditions  instead  of  owning  them  outright, 
as  in  earlier  and  later  times,  is  therefore  known  as  "  feudal  land- 
holding,"  or  "feudal  land  tenure." 

Most  large  fiefs  and  many  smaller  ones  were  held  by  barons, 
knights,  bishops,  or  abbeys,  directly  from  the  king.  Those  who 
held  their  lands  in  this  way  directly  from  the  king  were  called  ten- 
ants in  chief.  But  the  fief  of  a  great  baron,  monastery,  or  bishopric 
might  consist  of  a  score  or  even  a  hundred  or  more  manors  or 


134  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

small  farming  villages.  Some  of  these  manors  were  usually  in 
the  direct  possession  and  occupancy  of  the  tenant  in  chief,  but 
others  were  held  from  him  by  knights  or  other  tenants.  These 
were  in  the  same  relation  to  him  as  he  was  to  the  king.  They 
were  therefore  called  subtenants.  Below  these  subtenants  were 
men  who  held  lands  from  them,  and  so  through  successive  stages 
of  subtenancy.  The  person  from  whom  a  man  held  his  land  was 
called  his  lord. 

When  a  feudal  tenant  came  into  possession  of  his  land  either 
by  inheritance  or  by  a  grant  he  had  to  swear  fealty  and  do  hom- 
age for  it.  "  Fealty  and  homage  "  was  a  ceremony  in  which  the 
tenant  bent  on  his  knees  before  his  lord,  placed  his  hands  within 
the  lord's,  and  promised  to  be  his  .man,1  to  be  faithful  to  him  and 
dependent  upon  him,  and  to  serve  him  in  all  proper  ways  for  the 
fief  which  he  received  from  him.  By  this  ceremony  he  came  to 
be  the  lord's  vassal  as  well  as  his  tenant,  and  a  relation  of  per- 
sonal attachment  and  faithfulness  was  created  between  them. 

A  vassal  or  tenant  owed  to  his  lord  not  only  faithfulness  but 
services  and  payments  of  a  much  more  tangible  character.  He 
owed  him  military  service  in  proportion,  to  the  amount  of  land  he 
held  from  him.  That  is  to  say,  he  must  himself  serve  his  lord  as 
a  knight  and  bring  with  him  a  certain  number  of  other  fighting 
men  according  to  the  extent  of  his  fief.  The  length  of  time 
and  frequency  of  such  military  service  were  early  restricted  by 
well-understood  custom  to  a  period  of  forty  days  once  in  a  year. 
The  number  of  men  he  must  bring  was  one  for  each  knight's  fee 
which  he  held.2 

The  vassal  had  also  to  help  his  lord  by  money  payments  at 
certain  times  when  the  latter  had  special  need  of  money.  Such 
payments  were  called  aids.  There  were  three  occasions  generally 

1  This  was  the  origin  of  the  term  homage ;  from  the  Latin  homo,  a  man. 

2  A  knight's  fee  or  fief  was  the  amount  of  land  from  which  the  service 
of  one  knight  was  required.     It  was  not  of  an  exact  extent  or  value,  but  in 
later  practice  in  England  was  estimated  at  six  hundred  acres. 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS      135 

acknowledged  as  times  when  the  lord  had  a  right  to  collect  an  aid  : 
(i)  for  the  expenses  of  the  ceremony  when  his  eldest  son  was 
knighted,  (2)  for  his  eldest  daughter's  dowry  when  she  was  married, 
and  (3)  to  pay  his  ransom  in  case  he  was  captured  in  war. 

When  a  feudal  vassal  died,  his  lands  did  not  go  back  to  the 
lord,  but  went  by  inheritance  to  his  eldest  son,  or,  if  he  had  no 
son,  to  all  his  daughters  equally.  The  heir  had,  however,  to  pay 
to  his  lord  a  sum  of  money  in  recognition  of  the  lord's  superior 
claim  on  the  land.  This  payment  was  known  as  relief. 

An  heir  who  was  a  minor  came  under'  the  guardianship  of  the 
lord  from  whom  his  lands  were  held,  and  the  lands  went  into 
the  possession  of  the  lord  until  the  heir  became  of  age.  The 
lord  must,  however,  provide  for  his  support  and  training.  •  This 
right  of  the  lord  to  the  possession  of  lands  during  a  minority  is 
spoken  of  as  the  right  of  wardship.  When  the  child  who  would 
inherit  the  land  was  a  girl,  the  lord  claimed  the  right  to  select  a 
husband  for  her,  and  consequently  to  receive  the  money  payment 
which  the  suitor  was  willing  to  pay  for  the  hand  and  the  estates 
of  the  heiress.  This  was  called  the  right  of  marriage,  and  was 
sometimes  extended  to  the  widows  and  heirs  as  well  as  to  the 
heiresses  of  vassals. 

There  were  two  cases  in  which  the  lands  of  a  tenant  or  vassal 
came  back  into  the  lord's  possession.  If  a  vassal  violated  his  oath 
of  fealty,  he  forfeited  his  lands,  and  his  lord  might  seize  them ; 
and  if  he  died  without  direct  heirs  his  lands  escheated  to  his  lord.1 

The  relations  between  a  vassal  and  his  lord  were  not  all  one- 
sided. The  lord  also  had  his  duties  to  his  tenant.  He  not  only 
guaranteed  to  his  tenant  the  possession  of  his  land,  but  gave  him 
protection  against  violence  and  injustice,  and  afforded  him  assist- 
ance in  all  ways  that  he  could.  The  essence  of  feudalism  was 
a  contract  or  agreement,  by  which  the  lord  and  vassal  each  gave 
and  received  something. 

1  Examples  of  all  these  payments  and  services  are  given  in  Translations 
and  Reprints,  "  Documents  Illustrative  of  Feudalism,"  Vol.  IV,  No.  3. 


136  A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

no.  Feudal  Personal  Relations.  —  Landholding  and  persona! 
relationship  were  thus  closely  combined.  Fidelity  and  obedience 
were  owed  where  military  service  and  money  payments  were 
owed.  Protection  of  the  fatherless  and  the  widow  was  incum- 
bent upon  the  landlord  who  received  the  profits  of  the  wardship. 
However  poorly  these  personal  duties,  were  carried  out,  each 
tenant  of  land  was  bound  by  them  to  his  lord,  and  his  lord  was 
similarly  bound  to  him.  All  men  were  held  together,  in  ideal 
at  least,  by  the  double  bonds  of  land  tenure  and  personal  union. 
Moreover,  every  man  above  the  peasant  was  lord  of  some  sub- 
tenant who  held  from  him,  as  well  as  vassal  of  some  lord  from 
whom  he  held.  Homage  and  fealty,  military  service,  the  payment 
of  relief  and  aids,  wardship  and  marriage,  forfeiture  and  escheat, 
all  alike  existed  between  each  lord  and  his  tenant  in  the  same 
way  that  they  existed  between  the  king  and  his  tenants  in  chief. 
Feudal  tenure  and  feudal  services,  therefore,  held  together,  all 
classes  of  society,  not  the  highest  only. 

in.  Feudal  Powers  of  Government.  —  Landholding  during  the 
middle  ages  not  only  brought  with  it  these  personal  bonds  between 
lord  and  tenant,  but  gave  to  the  lord  many  powers  of  govern- 
ment over  his  tenants.  The  right  to  have  soldiers  under  one  is 
a  governmental  power.  Yet  every  feudal  lord  could  claim  the 
military  services  of  his  tenants.  Likewise  authority  to  give  de- 
cisions in  legal  cases  and  to  punish  offenses  is  a  governmental 
power.  Yet  every  lord  could  and  did  require  his  tenants  to  bring 
their  disputes  about  land  to  him  for  settlement,  and  thus  became 
their  judge  in  civil  cases.  A  large  number  of  the  tenants  in 
chief  of  the  king  had  also  been  given  an  hereditary  right  to  hold 
courts  over  their  tenants  for  criminal  offenses.  They  were  thus 
in  possession  of  courts  of  justice  to  which  all  their  tenants  must 
appeal  and  submit.  In  times  of  confusion  many  lords  coined 
money  of  their  own  standard  which  they  required  their  tenants 
to  accept.  The  right  of  lords  to  collect  aids  and  other  money 
dues  amounted  almost  to  a  right  of  taxation.  These  powers  of 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE    NORMANS  137 

military  levy,  courts  of  justice,  coinage  and  taxation,  are  powers 
that  in  modern  times  belong  only  to  the  government.  Under  medi- 
aeval conditions  they  were  not  possessed  by  the  government  alone, 
but  were  exercised  by  all  feudal  lords  over  their  own  tenants. 

The  expressions  "feudal,"  "feudalism,"  the  "feudal  system," are 
applied  to  the  customs  which  have  just  been  described.  Feudal- 
ism was  primarily  one  particular  form  of  possession  of  land.  But 
the  possession  of  land  was  such  an  important  matter  in  the  mid- 
dle ages  that  many  other  customs  depended  on  and  took  their 
character  from  it.  So  we  have  seen  that  many  of  the  personal 
interests  of  men  and  even  the  powers  of  government  were  in- 
cluded in  feudalism.  Long  before  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury it  had  placed  its  impress  upon  all  the  conditions  of  life. 

112.  Feudalism  in  the  Saxon  Period. — These  feudal  conditions 
came  into  existence  only  gradually,  and  to  trace  their  growth  in 
England  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  over  two  centuries  of  history. 
There  were  few  traces  of  feudalism  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century,  as  will  be  gathered  from  the  description  of  Anglo-Saxon 
society  as  it  was  at  that  time.1  In  the  later  Anglo-Saxon  period, 
however,  it  became  customary  for  the  king  to  give  a  right  to  hold 
courts  to  the  earls,  thegns,  or  church  bodies  to  whom  he  gave 
lands.  This  was  the  germ  of  the  feudal  power  of  jurisdiction 
over  tenants.  Large  landowners  also  at  about  the  same  time 
began  the  custom  of  granting  out  lands  to  tenants  not  for  a  mere 
money  rent  but  on  more  varied  and  personal  conditions.  This 
was  the  beginning  of  feudal  land  tenure.  During  the  century 
before  the  Norman  Conquest  it  became  customary  for  men  to 
commend  themselves,  as  it  was  called,  to  more  powerful  men  ; 
that  is,  to  take  an  oath  of  faithfulness  and  service  in  return  for 
protection  and  patronage.  Commendation  was  the  origin  of  feudal 
homage  and  fealty.  Men  no  doubt  often  received  grants  of  land 
on  commending  themselves,  or  agreed  to  hold  the  land  which 
they  already  possessed  in  dependence  on  the  lord  to  whom  they 

1  See  chap.  v. 


138  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

had  commended  themselves.  Thus  the  most  characteristic  feudal 
customs  were  evidently  already  coming  into  existence  among  the 
native  English  before  the  Normans  came  among  them.  Never- 
theless these  changes  were  slow  and  partial  during  the  Saxon 
period.  Fiefs  doubtless  existed,  much  like  those  of  later  times, 
but  they  were  not  universal  and  the  conditions  on  which  they 
were  held  were  not  yet  settled. 

113.  Effect  of  the  Conquest  on  English  Feudalism When  the 

Norman  Conquest  occurred,  however,  feudalism  rapidly  became 
more  general.     It  was  already  the  only  familiar  way  of  holding 
land  in  Normandy,  and  William's  confiscations  in  England  gave 
him  an  opportunity  to  require  feudal  service  from  all  the  forfeited 
land  when  he  granted  it  out  again  to  his   Norman   followers. 
All  the  feudal  payments  and  services  were  not,  of  course,  imme- 
diately  established.     These   were   settled   gradually,   no   doubt 
largely  by  the  influence  of  the  regular  meetings  and  policy  of  the 
Exchequer,  during  the  reign  of  the  later  kings  of  the  Norman  line. 
But  military  service  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  knights'  fees 
held,  which  was  the  most  fundamental  feudal  requirement,  seems 
to  have  been  universally  required  by  William  himself. 

114.  Peculiarities  of  Feudalism  in  England. — The  Conqueror 
introduced  one  great  principle  which  made  feudalism  in  England 
very  different  from  what  it  was  in  other  European  countries.     In 
other  countries  a  man's  allegiance  was  satisfactorily  fulfilled  by 
giving  it  under  all  circumstances  to  his  immediate  lord.     In  Eng- 
land William's  law  required  that  loyalty  to  the  king  should  take 
precedence  of  all  other  allegiance,  even  of  a  man's  fealty  to  his 
feudal  lord.     At  the  ceremony  of  the  Salisbury  oath,  imposed 
by  William  in  the  last  year  of  his  reign,  in  the  words  of  the  old 
chronicle,  "All  the  land-holding  men  of  all  England,  whosesoever 
men  they  were,  knelt  to  him  and  became  his  men,  and  swore 
solemn  oaths  to  him  that  they  would  be  faithful  to  him  before  all 
other  men."     Nevertheless  this  ideal  was  but  poorly  carried  out. 
When  the  great  barons  rose  in  rebellion  their  tenants  marched 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   NORMANS  139 

with  them  against  the  king ;  and  more  than  once  subtenants  were 
excused  for  rebellion  because  they  had  risen  in  obedience  to  the 
command  of  the  lord  to  whom  they  owed  direct  allegiance. 

A  second  characteristic  of  English  feudalism  was  its  compara- 
tive orderliness.  There  was  much  in  the  feudal  system  which 
tended  to  cause  disorder.  The  right  to  the  military  services  of 
his  vassals  was  a  constant  temptation  to  the  baron  to  make  use 
of  these  services.  But  the  English  kings  were  generally  much 
stronger  than  their  barons.  The  Conqueror,  William  Rufus,  and 
Henry  I  were  strong  enough  to  keep  feudal  conditions  tolerably 
orderly.  No  private  warfare  among  the  barons  was  allowed, 
rebellions  were  put  down,  the  fulfillment  of  feudal  requirements 
insisted  on,  and  there  was  little  systematic  or  long-continued 
oppression  of  the  subtenants  or  of  the  masses  of  the  people  by 
their  higher  feudal  lords.  Of  course  this  result  was  accomplished 
only  by  frequent  campaigns,  much  ravaging  of  the  country,  and 
heavy  taxation ;  but  it  was  accomplished.  Nevertheless  this  good 
order  depended  entirely  on  the  king.  As  feudal  customs  put  great 
power  into  the  hands  of  the  barons,  who  dwelt  in  their  fortified 
castles  and  possessed  judicial  and  pecuniary  rights  over  their  ten- 
ants, feudal  society  at  its  best  was  not  favorable  to  justice  and 
good  order.  At  its  worst  it  was  little  better  than  anarchy.  The 
weak  hand  of  Stephen  and  the  paralysis  of  the  government  dur- 
ing Matilda's  contest  for  the  throne  let  loose  all  the  power  for  evil 
of  the  higher  feudal  nobles,  and  the  terrible  disorders  already 
described  ensued. 

Feudalism  was  of  such  vast  importance  during  this  period  that 
it  has  seemed  best  to  give  a  systematic  description  of  its  main 
characteristics  in  this  place.  We  must  now  return  to  the  narra- 
tive of  events. 

115.  Succession  of  Henry  of  Anjou.  —The  civil  war  dragged 
on  for  fifteen  years,  going  sometimes  in  favor  of  Stephen,  some- 
times in  favor  of  Matilda.  After  1152  the  interests  of  Matilda 
were  represented  by  her  son,  Henry  of  Anjou,  who  had  succeeded 


140  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

his  father  as  count  of  Anjou,  Touraine,  and  Maine.  Matilda 
then  retired  from  the  contest,  but  Henry  continued  to  win  some 
successes  for  her  side.  Finally  the  death  of  Stephen's  eldest  son 
offered  an  opportunity  for  a  compromise.  This  was  arranged  at 
Wallingford  in  1153  by  some  of  the  most  influential  bishops,  and 
consisted  of  an  agreement  that  Stephen  should  be  acknowledged 
by  all  as  king  during  the  remainder  of  his  life,  but  should  accept 
Henry  as  his  heir.  On  these  terms  a  general  peace  was  made, 
known  as  the  "Treaty  of  Wallingford."  The  partisans  of  Matilda 
and  Henry  took  oaths  of  allegiance  to  Stephen  as  their  lawful 
ruler,  and  Stephen's  men  did  homage  to  Henry  as  their  future 
king.  A  great  council  was  held,  where  the  late  rivals  met  in  ami- 
cable discussion  and  made  certain  regulations  for  the  kingdom. 
Peace  was  at  last  attained.  Stephen  lived  only  one  more  year, 
dying  in  the  fall  of  1154  while  Henry  was  absent  in  Normandy. 

116.  Literature  of  the  Norman  Period. — This  period  had  seen 
more  writing  than  might  have  been  expected.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle,  which  had  been  continued  in  several  forms  from  the 
time  of  Alfred,  was  kept  up  for  a  short  time  after  the  Conquest 
in  two  or  three  monasteries,  but  came  to  an  end  with  1154.  In 
the  later  entries  the  language  is  incorrect  and  artificial.  Anglo- 
Saxon  was  evidently  unfamiliar  to  the  writer.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  had  gone  out  of  existence  as  a  written  language,  though  it  was 
still  spoken  by  the  great  mass  of  the  people  and  was  soon  to  come 
again  into  written  usage  in  a  somewhat  changed  form. 

In  Latin  there  was  a  great  deal  of  writing  during  the  century 
that  followed  the  Norman  Conquest.  The  philosophical  and 
theological  writings  of  such  men  as  the  two  great  archbishops 
Lanfranc  and  Anselm  have  already  been  mentioned.  Scholars 
who  had  come  from  Normandy,  and  some  who  were  of  English 
birth,  recorded  the  history  of  their  own  time  from  personal  obser- 
vation and  inquiry,  and  that  of  earlier  periods  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  chronicles.  Notwithstanding  their  indebtedness  to  the 
latter,  they  considered  the  language  in  which  they  were  written 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   NORMANS 


barbarous,  and  held  them  in  but  small  respect.  William  of  Malmes- 
bury,  a  Norman  chronicler  who  lived  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  I  and 
Stephen,  says  patronizingly,  "There  are  indeed  some  notices  of 
antiquity  written  in  the  vernacular  tongue,  after  the  manner  of  a 
chronicle,  and  arranged  according  to  the  years  of  our  Lord." 

All  the  writers  of  this  period  were  churchmen,  mostly  monks, 
who  in  the  quiet  of  their  monasteries  found  leisure  and  oppor- 
tunity to  write,  notwithstanding  the  confusion  and  trouble  of  the 
outer  world.  Florence, 
a  monk  of  Worcester, 
Henry,  an  archdeacon 
of  Huntingdon,  and 
several  others  made  up 
a  group  of  writers  who 
shared  in  the  European 
interest  in  literature  of 
that  period  and  wrote 
quite  voluminously. 
They  chose,  for  the 
most  part,  history  and 
biography  as  their  sub- 
jects. Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth,  who  died 
in  the  same  year  as 
Stephen,  wrote  a  fabu- 
lous History  of  the  Britons,  which  became  the  fountain  head  of 
the  legends  of  Arthur  and  Merlin  and  many  other  stories  of 
mediaeval  romance. 

117.  Architecture  and  Building. — The  Normans  were  great 
builders.  A  contemporary  writer  says,  "  You  might  see  churches 
rise  in  every  village  and  monasteries  in  the  towns  and  cities,  built 
after  a  style  unknown  before."  Castles  and  churches  were  almost 
the  only  buildings  of  importance  in  existence  at  this  period. 
Baronial  and  royal  fortresses  were  erected  and  enlarged  from 


The  "White  Tower  "  of  the  Tower  of  London, 
built  by  William  the  Conqueror 


142 


A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


time  to  time.  The  "  White  Tower,"  the  oldest  and  most  con- 
spicuous of  the  group  of  buildings  which  now  make  up  the  Tower 
of  London,  is  perhaps  the  most  famous  of  William's  castles.  It 
was  built  in  the  early  years  of  the  Conquest,  under  the  direction 
of  Gundulf,  bishop  of  Rochester,  a  famous  architect,  who  had 
already  built  a  castle  of  the  same  general  appearance  in  Nor- 
mandy, and  who  began  the  building  both  of  the  castle  and  the 
cathedral  of  Rochester.  Westminster  Hall  was  built  by  the  orders 
of  William  Rufus,  and  though  since  remodeled  and  frequently 

repaired  it  still  retains 
much  of  its  original 
character.     It   was 
one  of  the  first  large 
buildings     erected 
for  uses  neither  military 
nor  religious. 

Of  the  twenty  early 
cathedrals  as  they  now 
stand  in  England,  thirteen  still 
show  portions  which  were  built 
within  the  Norman  period.  One 
of  the  earliest  was  that  of  Can- 
terbury, which  was  begun  by 
Lanfranc,  but  was  destroyed  by 
fire  and  then  rebuilt  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  The  architecture 
of  the  large  and  beautiful  churches  which  the  Norman  bishops  and 
many  of  the  abbots  began  to  build  was  of  the  style  which  is  called 
"  Norman,"  marked  by  round  ornamented  arches  and  heavy  pillars. 
The  work  of  building  a  great  church  took  a  long  time  and  frequently 
required  the  efforts  of  several  generations.  Nevertheless  many 
of  the  cathedrals,  such  as  Durham,  Hereford,  Ely,  Winchester, 
Exeter,  and  Norwich,  were  completed,  at  least  in  many  of  their 
parts,  as  we  still  see  them,  by  the  bishops  who  took  part  in  the 
councils,  and  sometimes  in  the  wars,  of  the  Norman  kings. 


Nave  of  Hereford 
Cathedral 


ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  NORMANS      143 

118.  Summary  of  the  Norman  Period. — The  century  that  lay 
between  the  battle  of  Hastings  in  1066  and  the  accession  of 
Henry  II  in  1154  was  for  England  in  a  certain  sense  a  period 
of  beginnings,  or  at  least  of  such  a  transformation  of  old  customs 
as  to  make  them  practically  new.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  new 
line  of  kings  and  of  a  much  more  highly  organized  government. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  a  more  universal  and  well-defined  feudal- 
ism. It  was  the  beginning  of  a  much  closer  connection  of  the 
English  church  with  the  center  of  the  church  at  Rome.  It  was 
the  beginning  of  better  architecture,  better  writing,  better  trade. 
The  old  Anglo-Saxdn  race,  which  was  somewhat  sluggish  in  its 
nature  and  backward  in  its  civilization,  was  quickened  and  stirred 
and  elevated  by  its  conquerors.  This  was  a  partial  compensation 
for  the  loss  of  their  national  independence  and  for  the  oppressive 
rule  of  a  powerful  government  and  aristocracy,  all  the  more  hate- 
ful because  it  was  even  yet  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people  a  rule 
by  foreigners. 

General  Reading.  —  FREEMAN,  William  the  Conqueror  (Twelve  English 
Statesmen).  JOHNSTON,  Normans  in  Europe.  HUNT,  Norman  Britain 
is  a  good  small  book  on  this  whole  period.  STUBBS,  Early  Plantagenets, 
chaps,  i  and  ii,  gives  a  short  survey  of  this  period  preliminary  to  its  special 
subject.  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  ii,  sects.  5-6.  RAMSAY,  Foundations 
of  English  History,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  i-xxviii,  is  very  full  on  this  period.  Still 
fuller  works  on  special  sides  of  the  period  are  POLLOCK  and  MAITLAND, 
History  of  English  Law,  chaps,  i-iv;  and  STEPHENS,  History  of  the  English 
Church,  iobb-i2rj2,  chaps,  i-viii.  For  feudalism  on-  the  continent,  see 
ROBINSON,  History  of  Western  Europe,  chaps,  viii  and  ix. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  WILLIAM  OF  MALMESBURY,  Chronicle.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  in  one  of  its  forms  continues  to  1154.  Interesting 
extracts  from  this  and  other  sources  are  given  in  LEE,  Nos.  45-57 ;  COLBY, 
Nos.  13-21 ;  and  KENDALL,  Nos.  14-18.  No.  47  in  the  first  of  these,  No.  16 
in  the  second,  and  the  same  number  in  the  third  is  the  striking  description 
of  William's  character  from  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  year  1087.  The 
charter  of  Henry  I  is  printed  in  Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  I,  No.  6, 
and  in  ADAMS  and  STEPHENS,  Documents  Illustrative  of  English  Constitu- 
tional History.  For  feudalism  see  documents  in  Translations  and  Reprints, 
Vol.  IV,  No.  3. 


144  A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Poetry  and  Romance.  — The  Red  King,  by  Kingsley,  and  the  White 
Ship,  by  Rossetti,  are  two  ballads  found  in  Miss  BATES  and  Miss  COM  AN, 
English  History  told  by  English  Poets,  an  interesting  collection  of  historical 
poetry  intended  as  a  reading  book  for  schools. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Effect  of  the  Conquest  on  the  English  Language, 
LOUNSBURY,  English  Language,  chaps,  iv  and  v;  (2)  the  Oath  of  Salisbury, 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  year  1086;  (3)  Anarchy  under  Stephen,  ibid.,  year 
1137;  (4)  the  New  Forest,  BARING,  article  in  English  Historical  Review, 
July,  1901,  pp.  427-438;  (5)  the  Cistercian  Monasteries,  Miss  COOKE,  ibid., 
October,  1893,  PP-  625-676;  (6)  Contest  about  Investitures  in  Germany, 
ROBINSON,  History  of  Western  Eiirope,  pp.  154-172;  (7)  Feudalism  on  the 
Continent,  SEIGNOBOS,  The  Feudal  Regime,  translated  by  Dow;  (8)  the 
Exchequer,  HALL,  Antiquities  of  the  Exchequer,  chaps,  iii  and  iv ;  (9)  Norman 
Architecture,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  I,  pp.  319-325. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY 

119.  Accession  and  Character  of  Henry  II.  —  When  Henry  of 
Anjou l  became  king  in  1154  he  was  in  a  more  independent 
position  than  any  king  had  been  since  William  the  Conqueror. 
There  was  no  other  claimant  for  the  crown ;  he  had  already  been 
acknowledged  by  both  parties  in  the  late  civil  wars ;  and  weary 
of  the  anarchy  under  Stephen  all  classes  were  ready  to  accept  a 
strong  ruler.  Henry  was,  besides,  one  of  the  most  energetic  men 
that  ever  sat  upon  a  throne.  He  was  in  constant  restless  activity, 
—  traveling,  fighting,  listening  to  law  cases,  drawing  up  new  enact- 
ments, conferring  with  his  ministers,  disputing  with  his  opponents ; 
and  taking  his  recreation  only  in  the  equally  active  form  of  hunt- 
ing. His  form  corresponded  to  these  traits  of  character.  He 

1  Henry  and  the  seven  rulers  who  followed  and  were  descended  from 
him,  reigning  in  all  for  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  are  known  as 
the  Angevin  line  of  kings,  the  word  Angevin  being  taken  from  Anjou  in 
France,  Henry's  birthplace  and  paternal  inheritance.  They  are  also  spoken 
of  as  the  Plantagenet  family;  Henry's  father,  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  having 
been  given  the  nickname  Geoffrey  plants  de  genet,  from  the  broom  flower 
(planta  genista),  either  because  he  wore  a  sprig  of  that  plant  for  a  badge 
or  because  he  was  so  fond  of  hunting  and  riding  over  the  broom-covered 
heaths.  The  dates  of  the  reigns  of  Henry  II  and  his  sons  which  are  cov- 
ered by  this  chapter  were  as  follows : 

Henry  II 
reigned  1154-1189 

Henry,  died  1183  Richard  I  Geoffrey,  died  1186  John 

reigned  1189-1199  |  reigned  1199-1216 

Arthur,  died  1203 

us 


146  A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

was  heavily  built,  with  broad  shoulders,  thick  neck,  powerful  arms 
and  long  bony  hands,  red^  hair,  which  he  kept  cut  short,  and  a 
florid  face.  His  voice  was  harsh,  but  his  eyes  were  soft  till  he 
grew  angry,  when  they  blazed  out,  and  his  passion  was  terrible 
enough  to  frighten  the  boldest  of  his  barons.  He  was  frugal  in 
his  eating  and  drinking,  an  early  riser,  careless  in  his  dress, 
devoted  to  business,  and  easily  accessible  to  all  who  wished  to 
speak  to  him.  He  was  only  twenty-one  years  of  age  when  he 
came  to  the  throne,  but  had  already  been  engaged  in  the  work 
of  war  and  government  in  Anjou  for  six  years.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  a  man  of  this  nature,  training,  and  position  should  leave  a 
deep  personal  impression  upon  his  own  and  later  times. 

120.  Henry's  Dominions. — England  was  only  one  of  the  lands 
over  which  Henry  ruled.    From  his  mother  he  inherited  Normandy 
and  Maine  as  well  as  England ;  from  his  father  he  inherited  Anjou 
and  Touraine,  and  later  obtained  the  overlordship  of  Brittany. 
He  married  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine  and  obtained  thereby  her  mag- 
nificent paternal  heritage  of  Poitou,  Guienne,  and  Gascony.    He 
claimed  also  the  overlordship  of  Scotland  and  Wales,  and  before 
his  death  became  lord  of  Ireland.    The  dominions  of  which  Henry 
was  lord,  directly  and  indirectly,  extended  from  the  Pyrenees  to 
the  Orkney  Islands.     He  was  sometimes  in  one  part,  sometimes 
in  another,  of  this  territory.   '  Of  the  thirty-five  years  of  his  reign 
more  than  twenty-one  were  spent  in  France,  and  only  thirteen  in 
England.     His  trips  to  England  were  usually  only  a  few  months 
or  at  most  a  year  or  two  in  length,  but  each  one  of  them  was 
filled  with  an  activity  that  accomplished  what  seemed  the  work 
of  many  times  such  a  period. 

121.  Lack  of  Unity  in  England. — Even  in  England  it  was  no 
united  nation  over  which  Henry  ruled/the  people  being  partly 
English  and  partly  Norman.     Some  of  the  laws  and  customs  of 
this  twofold  race  were  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin,  some  had  been 
brought  from  Normandy,  while  still  others  had  been  adopted 
since  the  Conquest.     The  courts  that  carried  out  the  laws  and 


1    I    I    1    1 

ANGEVTO  DOMINIONS 


Countries  held  by  Vassals  from  Henry  II. 
Held  by  Henry  II  from  a  superior  king, 
by  Henry  II  in  his  own  right. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  147 

enforced  established  custom  drew  their  authority  in  some  cases 
from  the  king,  in  some  from  the  barons,  in  some  from  the  church. 
Many  cases  were  brought  before  the  old  local  courts  of  hundreds 
and  shires.  Three  languages  were  habitually  used :  the  Latin  of 
the  churchman,  the  chronicler,  and  the  keeper  of  records ;  the 
French  of  the  noble,  the  merchant,  and  the  lawyer ;  the  English 
of  the  peasantry.  These  languages  reflected  the  division  of  the 
nation  into  classes.  There  were  two  contending  principles  of 
government :  that  which  would  make  the  king  and  his  council 
supreme  over  all,  and  that  which  would  leave  much  of  the  power 
of  government  to  the  feudal  barons ;  besides  which  must  be  taken 
into  account  the  claim  of  churchmen  to  be  practically  independ- 
ent of  all  government  except  that  of  the  church.  Thus  Eng- 
land was  far  from  being  a  single  well-organized  nation,  with  one 
law,  one  government,  and  a  united  national  feeling.  These  things 
were  only  attained  in  their  fullness  after  the  passage  of  several 
centuries.  Nevertheless  the  foundations  at  least  of  national  unity 
were  laid  within  Henry's  long  reign  of  thirty-five  years ;  and 
the  reigns  of  his  two  sons  saw  the  conclusion  of  the  process  of 
national  consolidation. 

122.  Restoration  of  Order. — The  first  step  in  the  process  was 
the  restoration  of  order.  As  a  result  of  the  anarchy  and  the  long- 
continued  civil  war  of  Stephen's  reign,  England  was  in  a  condi- 
tion of  indescribable  confusion.  The  government,  as  it  had  been 
organized  in  the  time  of  Henry  I,  had  fallen  greatly  into  decay. 
Taxation,  justice,  military  service,  and  respect  for  royal  powers 
and  privileges  had  all  been  largely  disregarded  during  the  reign 
of  Stephen.  Hence  the  new  king's  first  efforts  were  naturally 
given  to  the  establishment  of  the  authority  of  government. 

Immediately  on  Stephen's  death  Henry  came  to  England 
and  remained  there  for  more  than  a  year.  Within  this  year  the 
old  fabric  of  government  was  gradually  built  up  again.  Great 
councils  were  held,  the  curia  regis  was  reconstituted,  the  Exche- 
quer began  to  meet  again  with  great  regularity.  An  able  justiciar, 


148  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Richard  de  Lucy,  was  appointed  ;  the  old  treasurer,  the  nephew  of 
Roger  of  Salisbury,  whom  Stephen  had  imprisoned,  was  released 
and  reappointed  to  office ;  and  Thomas  of  London,  otherwise 
known  as  Thomas  Becket,  or  Thomas  a  Becket,  a  brilliant  young 
churchman,  was  made  chancellor.  Sheriffs  were  appointed,  and 
the  armed  bands  of  foreigners  who  had  served  in  the  civil  war 
were  dismissed.  The  barons  who  had  erected  castles  in  Stephen's 
time  were  ordered  to  dismantle  them  or  hand  them  over  to  the 
king.  Powerful  men  who  had  seized  lands  unjustly  from  those  who 
were  weaker  were  ordered  to  restore  them. 

There  was  naturally  some  resistance  to  these  reforms,  but  the 
disorders  had  been  so  great  that  almost  everybody  recognized  the 
need  for  an  assertion  of  authority.  Those  of  the  great  nobles  who 
resisted  by  force  of  arms,  Henry  defeated  in  1 1 5  5  and  deprived  of 
their  castles.  But,  as  in  the  time  of  Henry  I,  the  greatest  con- 
trol was  exercised  over  the  nobles  by  subjecting  them,  like  every 
one  else,  to  the  authority  of  the  royal  courts,  requiring  them  to 
settle  their  disputes  in  the  curia  regis  or  before  the  judges  on  their 
circuits,  and  compelling  them  to  pay  the  dues  which  they  owed 
the  king  into  the  Exchequer  and  according  to  its  rules. 

123.  The  Judicial  Assizes.  —  The  courts,  the  jury  system,  and 
the  common  law,  with  the  equal  protection  against  injustice  which 
they  give  to  all,  have  been  special  objects  of  pride  to  the  English 
race.  It  was  at  this  time  and  by  Henry  II  and  his  ministers  that 
their  bases  were  laid.  The  subject  is  a  somewhat  difficult  one, 
but  it  is  well  worth  trying  to  understand,  as  all  the  later  history  of 
England  depends  to  a  considerable  extent  upon  it.  In  the  following 
paragraphs,  therefore,  an  effort  will  be  made  to  explain  as  clearly  as 
possible  the  main  foundations  of  the  legal  system  under  Henry  II. 

Henry's  reorganization  of  the  government  was  not  merely  a 
restoration  of  the  old  system.  Much  that  was  new  was  intro- 
duced. The  work  of  the  curia  regis  and  of  its  justices1  as 

1  In  England  the  word  justice  is  used  in  cases  where  in  America  the 
TNQ\&  judge  is  more  usual. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  149 

they  went  on  circuit  was  not  only  regulated  but  improved  and 
extended.  The  king's  ministers  had  always  exercised  the  right 
of  deciding  cases  immediately  interesting  the  king,  such  as  dis- 
putes between  tenants  in  chief  and  matters  in  which  the  king's 
rights  were  questioned.  They  had  also  inflicted  punishment  for 
murder,  burglary,  and  other  great  crimes,  where  these  had  not 
been  committed  within  the  jurisdiction  of  some  feudal  lord  with 
high  judicial  powers  of  his  own.  Now  the  king  gave  the  justices 
instructions  to  carry  their  duties  and  powers  still  further.  He 
laid  down  the  fundamental  principle  that  no  freeman  might  be 
impleaded  for  his  free  tenement  without  a  writ  from  the  king. 
An  edict  called  the  Great  As  size  f  issued  early  in  his  reign,  pro- 
vided the  means  by  which  any  freeman  whose  title  to  land  was 
disputed  might  resort  to  the  king's  justices  to  have  the  question 
of  the  validity  of  his  title  decided.  Even  if  the  case  was  under 
trial  in  a  baron's  court  or  in  a  shire  court,  the  king's  judges 
might  order  proceedings  stopped  until  they  had  time  to  take  it 
up.  Other  assizes  of  a  similar  kind  were  issued  to  meet  various 
needs  until  any  case  involving  the  possession  of  land,  and  many 
other  cases,  could  be  brought  into  the  king's  court.  There 
were,  however,  many  burdens  and  difficulties  connected  with  the 
procedure.  The  fees  demanded  by  the  curia  were  very  high. 
In  fact  the  principal  motive  of  the  king  in  the  extension  of  the 
system  of  royal  courts  was  the  increase  of  income  it  brought  him. 
As  the  justices  had  to  be  with  the  king  wherever  he  might  be 
when  he  was  in  England,  and  even  sometimes  abroad,  those  who 
had  suits  before  them  were  required  to  follow  them  up  from  place 

1  The  word  assize  was  used  at  this  period  to  mean  an  edict  or  law  issued 
by  the  king,  usually  with  the  assent  of  the  great  council.  Some  of  the 
assizes  were  intended  to  be  publicly  proclaimed,  but  most  of  them  were 
in  the  form  of  instructions  or  rules  of  action  given  to  the  king's  justices. 
The  word  assize  was  also  applied  to  the  procedure  under  such  rules.  It  is 
to  be  noticed  that  until  this  time  most  of  the  bodies  of  law  issued  by  the 
kings  professed  to  be  merely  a  restatement  of  the  old  customs  of  the  people. 
The  assizes  of  Henry  II  deliberately  introduced  new  laws. 


150  A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

to  place,  often  from  one  end  of  England  to  another,  with  their 
witnesses,  until  a  trial  could  be  obtained,  unless  a  justice  of  the 
king  should  come  on  a  circuit  in  their  part  of  the  country  and 
they  could  get  the  case  before  him  while  there. 

124.  Origin  of  Trial  by  Jury. — The  decisions  given  by  the 
king's  justices  were  more  valued  than  those  given  in  a  baron's 
court  or  in  a  shire  or  hundred  court.  The  principal  reason  for 
this  was  that  the  king's  justices  in  cases  under  the  assizes  used  a 
new  and  better  form  of  trial  than  ordeal,  compurgation,  or  wager 
of  battle.  This  was  what  was  then  called  an  "inquisition"  or 
"recognition,"  but  afterwards  grew  into  the  trial  by  jury  now  used 
in  all  English-speaking  countries.  As  the  justices  of  the  curia 
regis  wielded  all  the  authority  of  the  king,  they  had  powers  which 
were  not  possessed  by  other  courts.  One  of  these  powers  of 
which  they  made  constant  use  was  to  require  persons  to  attend 
the  court  and  to  give  information  upon  oath  upon  any  matter 
submitted  to  them  by  the  justices.  A  "recognition"  was  a  pro- 
cedure under  which  the  judges,  when  asked,  issued  an  order 
for  a  number  of  men,  usually  twelve  and  usually  neighbors  of  the 
parties  engaged  in  the  dispute,  to  investigate  the  case  and  give 
a  sworn  "verdict"1  as  to  which  of  the  claimants  had  the  better 
right  to  the  land  about  which  they  were  disputing.  These  selected 
men,  called  jurors2  because  they  had  to  swear  to  tell  the  truth, 
were  generally  required  to  be  knights  or  men  of  equally  high 
position  in  the  community,  and  they  were  bound  to  decide  in 
favor  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  litigants  and  to  report  to  the 
judges  at  an  appointed  time  and  place.  If  they  neglected  to 
give  the  decision  or  could  be  proved  to  have  given  an  unjust 
decision,  they  were  heavily  fined. 

Disputants  in  land  cases  were  thus  given  a  decision  based  not 
on  the  barbarous  method  of  ordeal  or  of  wager  of  battle,  but  on  the 

1  From  verum  dictum,  a  true  statement. 

2  From  jura,  I  swear.     Any  one  who  gives  a  decision  on  oath  is  a  juror, 
such  as  a  road-juror  or  a  juror  of  awards. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF    NATIONAL  UNITY  151 

sworn  opinions  of  their  own  neighbors,  who  must  generally  have 
been  familiar  with  the  facts  of  the  case  The  men  who  gave  a 
verdict  were  witnesses  and  jurymen  combined.  They  discussed 
the  matter  among  themselves  and  only  reported  to  the  judge  the 
results  they  reached.  In  later  times  the  system  was  gradually 
changed  so  that  the  whole  proceeding  had  to  be  carried  out  in 
the  presence  of  the  judge,  who  decided  all  points  of  law.  The 
jury  also  came  in  the  course  of  time  to  be  divided  into  two 
bodies.  Those  who  possessed  information  on  the  matter  were 
required  to  give  their  testimony  under  oath.  Those  who  knew 
nothing  beforehand  about  the  facts  were  required  to  listen  and 
give  a  sworn  judgment  based  on  what  they  had  heard.  The  for- 
mer were  of  course  the  witnesses,  as  they  are  called  in  a  modern 
court,  the  latter  alone  are  the  jury.  It  is  known  as  the  "  petty 
jury  "  or  "  trial  jury."  Thus  the  modern  jury  system  was  applied 
to  the  settlement  of  land  disputes,  and  after  a  while  of  other  civil 
suits.  It  was  extended  in  time  to  a  decision  as  to  the  guilt  or 
innocence  of  a  person  charged  with  a  criminal  offense.  Ordeals 
were  forbidden  by  the  Lateran  Council  of  1215,  while  compurga- 
tion  and  wager  of  battle  were  gradually  superseded  by  this  better 
system  and  in  time  became  entirely  obsolete.  But  the  change 
only  came  gradually  and  was  not  completed  until  the  fifteenth 
century.  What  was  done  in  Henry's  time  was  simply  the  substi- 
tution in  certain  kinds  of  cases  of  a  sworn  decision  by  neighbors 
for  the  earlier  and  cruder  forms  of  trial. 

125.  Origin  of  Indictment  by  Jury.  —  In  1166  Henry  issued 
a  new  assize,  known  as  the  Assize  of  Clarendon*  the  object  of 
which  was  to  introduce  a  reform  in  the  punishment  of  crimes, 
much  as  the  Great  Assize  had  been  intended  to  introduce  reforms 
in  the  settlement  of  land  disputes.  There  had  been  in  recent 
times  an  unusually  large  amount  of  crime.  Murders,  assaults, 
and  thefts  were  of  constant  occurrence,  and  the  criminals  often 

1  This  assize  can  be  found  in  Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  I,  No.  6. 
The  most  important  clauses  are  i,  2,  14,  and  15. 


152  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

remained  undiscovered  or  unpunished.  One  cause  of  this  was 
that  there  was  nobody  whose  regular  duty  it  was  to  accuse  or 
prosecute  offenders.  Unless  the  person  injured  or  his  relatives 
or  friends  brought  the  criminal  to  justice,  no  one  was  especially 
interested  in  doing  so,  and  the  offender  was  never  charged  with 
the  crime.  Another  cause  of  immunity  was  the  inefficiency  of 
the  courts  held  by  feudal  lords  who  possessed  the  right  to  punish 
criminals  under  their  jurisdiction.  Long  after  this  time  there 
were  still  thirty-five  private  gallows  in  Berkshire  alone,  but  the 
men  who  suffered  on  them  were  few  compared  with  the  number 
who  had  committed  capital  offenses. 

Both  of  these  difficulties  were  met  by  the  Assize  of  Clarendon. 
It  provided  that  when  the  king's  justices  came  to  the  county 
court  twelve  men  from  each  hundred  and  four  men  from  each 
manor  in  the  hundred  should  be  put  upon  their  oath  and  required 
to  give  the  names  of  any  men  they  knew  in  their  hundred  or 
manor  who  had  been  accused  or  suspected  of  having  committed 
any  of  the  greater  crimes.  In  this  way  a  jury  had  the  public 
duty  of  making  accusations,  whether  they  had  any  personal  inter- 
est in  the  matter  or  not.  Such  an  accusation  made  by  the  neigh- 
bors of  any  man  was  considered  to  indicate  the  probability  of  his 
guilt.  Therefore  such  a  person  was  to  be  arrested  and  sent  to  the 
ordeal  of  water.  If  he  failed  in  the  ordeal  he  was  to  be  punished. 
Even  if  he  succeeded  he  might  still  be  banished.  As  the  law 
says,  "If  they  are  of  very  bad  reputation  and  publicly  and  dis- 
gracefully spoken  ill  of  by  the  testimony  of  many  and  lawful  men, 
they  shall  abjure  the  lands  of  the  king  so  that  within  eight  days 
they  shall  go  over  the  sea,  unless  the  wind  shall  have  detained 
them."  The  assize  gave  the  sheriffs  the  right  to  go  on  the  lands 
of  any  feudal  lord  to  make  arrests  on  this  kind  of  accusation  and 
to  keep  an  oversight  of  the  good  order  of  the  vassals  even  when 
they  were  not  accused  by  a  jury.  Jails  were  to  be  built,  fugitive 
criminals  were  to  be  sought  for  from  county  to  county,  and  other 
provisions  for  efficiency  were  made.  But  the  two  points  of  special 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  153 

originality  and  importance  in  the  Assize  of  Clarendon  were  the 
jury  of  indictment,  or  grand  jury  of  modern  times,  and  the  taking 
away  of  the  independence  of  the  feudal  courts  in  criminal  matters. 
Within  the  next  century  the  custom  arose  of  giving  a  "  recogni- 
tion "  to  accused  criminals  instead  of  sending  them  to  the  ordeal, 
and  thus  trial  by  jury  as  well  as  accusation  by  jury  was  introduced 
into  the  criminal  procedure  of  the  courts  as  it  had  already  been 
in  the  decision  of  civil  cases.  These  two  processes  of  accusation 
and  of  trial  by  a  jury  make  up  what  is  known  as  the  "  jury  system." 

126.  The  Common  Law  and  the  Common  Law  Courts.  —  The 
curia  regis,  sitting  as  a  combined  body,  and  its  members  when 
they  went  on  circuit  through  the  country,  kept  a  record  of  the 
cases  settled  and  the  decisions  given.  The  justices  were  highly 
trained,  learned  men,  and  their  decisions  were  given  on  principles 
which  were  logical,  consistent,  and  conformable  to  custom.  This 
body  of  principles  as  understood  by  the  king's  justices  and  as 
shown  in  the  decisions  given  by  them  came  to  be  known  as  the 
"common  law."  The  judges  usually  insisted  upon  these  general 
principles  even  where  they  came  into  conflict  with  the  special 
local  customs  or  privileges  of  particular  persons  or  communities, 
and  enforced  the  decisions  based  upon  them.  This  enforcement 
of  the  enlightened  and  universal  common  law  by  the  justices  who 
passed  from  time  to  time  over  all  England,  or  decided  questions 
brought  before  the  curia  regis  from  all  parts  of  the  country  did 
much  to  bring  about  uniformity  in  both  national  law  and  custom. 

The  system  of  recognitions,  the  common  law,  the  freedom 
from  partisanship,  and  the  powers  of  enforcement  possessed  by 
the  king's  courts  gradually  drew  all  cases  into  them  that  could 
readily  be  brought  there,  and  made  these  courts  busy,  powerful, 
and,  through  their  fees  and  fines,  profitable  to  the  king.  Besides 
this  activity  of  the  great  courts  it  became  usual  to  think  of  all 
lesser  courts  as  being  dependent  on  the  king.  The  county  and 
hundred  courts  were  brought  more  directly  under  the  control  of 
the  king's  officials.  Twice  a  year  the  sheriff  of  each  county  went 


154  A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

from  hundred  to  hundred  through  his  county,  holding  a  court  in 
each  hundred  to  inquire  into  certain  matters  of  smaller  moment. 
This  circuit  was  called  the  sheriff's  tourn  and  leet.  The  county 
courts  continued  to  be  held  monthly  as  of  old,  also  under  the 
presidency  of  the  sheriff.  But  from  time  to  time  one  or  two  of 
the  king's  justices  would  come  into  the  county  on  their  circuit 
and  hold  a  county  court  of  especial  dignity.  Even  those  who 
were  exempted  from  attendance  at  other  times  were  bound  to 
come  on  such  occasions.  The  manor  courts  held  by  the  feudal 
barons  became  gradually  of  less  importance,  with  fewer  cases  and 
those  of  a  more  petty  description. 

127.  The  Assize  of  Arms.  —  Much  of  Henry's  time  and  interest 
was  necessarily  given  to  fighting  in  one  part  or  another  of  his 
scattered  dominions.  For  war  purposes,  in  his  longer  campaigns, 
he  relied  for  the  most  part  on  mercenaries,  soldiers  by  trade, 
whom  he  hired  in  Gascony,  Flanders,  or  in  fact  where  he  could 
find  them.  For  home  use  in  England,  however,  and  for  wars  on 
the  unsettled  borders  of  Scotland  and  Wales,  the  king  seems  to 
have  thought  that  the  body  of  the  people  might  be  effectually 
armed  and  organized  into  a  sort  of  militia.  The  old  idea  of  the, 
Anglo-Saxon  fyrd  had  never  been  entirely  lost,  and  the  common 
people  had  been  summoned  out  occasionally  by  the  Norman  kings, 
and  more  than  once  by  Henry  himself  or  his  justiciars.  In  1 1 8 1 
the  king  made  this  more  regular  by  issuing  the  "Assize  of  Arms."1 
This  made  it  compulsory  for  every  freeman  in  England  to  be 
provided  with  arms  according  to  his  means  and  station  in  society. 
Every  man  of  the  rank  of  knight  was  to  provide  himself  with  a 
horse  and  full  armor;  those  of  rank  somewhat  lower,  with  full 
armor  without  the  horse,  and  so  on  down  to  the  simple  freeman  or 
burgess,  who  must  have  a  coat  of  mail,  a  steel  cap,  and  a  spear. 
These  arms  were  not  to  be  sold  or  put  in  pawn,  and  were  to 

1  This  assize  can  be  found  in  Adams  and  Stephens's  Documents  Illustra- 
tive of  English  Constitutional  History.  Its  most  important  clauses  are  i,  2, 
3,  4,  and  8. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  155 

be  used  only  when  their  owner  was  called  out  for  national  service 
by  the  king's  command.  Thus  in  addition  to  the  king's  mer- 
cenary forces  and  the  feudal  lords  and  their  subtenants,  the 
freemen  of  the  country  were  provided  with  appropriate  arms  and 
bound  to  hold  themselves  ready  for  military  service  if  called  upon. 

128.  Feudal  Taxation The  value  of  the  military  service  owed 

to  the  king  by  the  tenants  in  chief  had  never  been  very  great. 
Probably  the  whole  number  of  knights  or  fully  armed  horse- 
soldiers  whom  the  king  could  summon  was  never  greater  than 
five  thousand,  and  their  service  was  often  ineffective  because  of 
the  short  period  for  which  it  was  owed.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
money  payment  due  from  the  tenants  in  chief  as  part  of  their 
feudal  service  was  profitable  to  the  king  and  could  be  made  more 
so.  The  enforcement  of  these  financial  claims  was  the  constant 
policy  of  Henry  II  and  his  ministers.  Reliefs  were  rigorously  col- 
lected ;  the  guardianship  of  minor  heirs  and  the  marriage  of  heir- 
esses and  widows  of  tenants  in  chief  were  sold  to  those  who  would 
pay  into  the  Exchequer  the  highest  sums  for  them.1  Infractions 
of  feudal  rules  were  punished  by  the  imposition  of  money  fines. 
An  aid  collected  on  the  marriage  of  the  king's  eldest  daughter  was 
levied  with  new  and  strict  completeness.  Above  all,  Henry  repeat- 
edly made  demands  of  a  kind  almost  unknown  before,  under  the 
name  of  scutage.  This  was  a  payment  of  so  much  on  each  knight's 
fee,  demanded  by  the  king  from  his  tenants  in  chief  when  he  was 
in  special  need  of  money  for  the  purposes  of  a  war.  It  is  true 
that  the  king  summoned  the  barons  much  less  frequently  to  fulfill 
their  direct  military  service  to  him  than  had  been  done  before. 
Instead  of  this  he  used  the  money  obtained  by  collection  of  the 
scutages  to  hire  mercenary  soldiers.  Scutages  thus  came  to  be 
looked  upon  as  payments  made  instead  of  military  service.  They 
were  a  natural  result  of  the  increasing  amount  of  money  in  exist- 
ence and  the  extended  military  needs  of  the  king. 

1  Instances  of  such  payments  will  be  found  in  Translations  and  Reprints^ 
Vol.  IV,  No.  3,  pp.  25-28. 


156  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

In  these  various  ways,  by  bringing  suits  into  the  king's  courts, 
by  transforming  all  feudal  relations  into  the  shape  of  money  pay- 
ments, by  organizing  armies  without  calling  upon  the  barons,  the 
king  and  his  ministers  were  reducing  feudalism  in  England  to  less 
and  less  importance.  It  remained  scarcely  more  than  a  form  of 
taxation  and  of  landholding.  The  royal  government  was  fast 
becoming  absolute,  and  the  king  getting  into  his  own  hands  all 
political  power. 

129.  The  Church. — There  was  one  other  organization  in  Eng- 
land, however,  whose  powers  were  on  the  increase,  even  while 
feudalism  was  becoming  less  important.  This  was  the  church. 
The  division  of  England  into  two  provinces,  of  these  into  bish- 
oprics, of  which  there  had  come  to  be  nineteen,  and  of  the  whole 
country  into  parishes,  of  which  there  were  some  eight  or  ten  thou- 
sand, has  already  been  described.1  Since  the  Norman  Con- 
quest the  organization  of  the  church  had  become  more  complex. 
Churchmen  were  more  separated  from  laymen  and  more  closely 
united  with  one  another.  The  expression  "  the  church "  had 
come  to  be  understood  not  as  the  whole  body  of  Christians  of 
whom  the  clergy  were  merely  the  religious  leaders,  but  the  clergy 
alone,  separated  by  powers  and  privileges,  laws,  and  an  organiza- 
tion of  their  own,  from  those  who  did  not  belong  to  their  order. 

The  bishoprics  were  endowed  with  extensive  lands  and  received 
rents  and  income  from  many  sources.  The  center  of  each  bish- 
opric was  its  cathedral.  Some  of  these  cathedrals  were  organ- 
ized as  monasteries,  with  a  body  of  monks ;  others  were  not  so 
organized.  Connected  with  each  cathedral  of  the  latter  class  was 
a  group  of  canons  or  cathedral  clergy.  At  some  cathedrals  there 
were  as  few  as  four  or  five  canons,  at  others  as  many  as  forty  or 
fifty.  These  canons  fulfilled  various  duties  connected  with  the 
religious  work  of  the  cathedral  church,  and  when  the  bishop  died 
it  was  they  who  elected  his  successor,  though  the  man  they  elected 
was  usually  nominated  by  the  king.  As  an  organized  body  the 
i  See  pp.  49-50. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  157 

canons  were  spoken  of  as  the  chapter  of  the  cathedral.  The 
head  of  a  chapter  was  the  dean.  The  bishop's  position  with  its 
powers  and  duties,  partly  spiritual  as  a  great  officer  of  the  church, 
partly  temporal  as  a  feudal  landholder  and  baron  of  the  kingdom, 
has  already  been  explained.  Some  of  his  older  functions  had 
now  come  to  be  performed  by  the  archdeacons,  of  whom  there 
were  usually  several  in  each  diocese. 

130.  The  Church  Courts. —.The  principal  duty  of  the  arch- 
deacon was  to  take  charge  in  the  bishop's  name  of  much  of  the 
judicial  work  of  the  church.  The  church  courts  had  become  of 
importance  only  since  the  Norman  Conquest.  It  was  one  of 
William's  laws  that  church  matters  should  not  be  decided  in  the 
hundred  and  shire  courts  as  before,  but  by  the  bishops  in  courts 
of  their  own,  as  on  the  continent.  Since  that  time  church  suits 
had  become  vastly  more  numerous.  All  courts  at  this  time  tried 
to  get  as  many  cases  before  them  as  possible.  This  was  princi- 
pally for  financial  reasons.  The  fees  that  were  paid  for  the  privi- 
lege of  having  suits  heard  and  the  money  penalties  that  were 
inflicted  went  of  course  to  the  court  before  which  the  case  came. 
Therefore,  just  as  the  king's  court  and  the  barons'  courts  were  try- 
ing to  get  or  keep  control  of  as  much  jurisdiction  as  possible,  the 
church  courts,  held  by  bishops  and  archdeacons,  tried  to  extend 
the  variety  and  number  of  cases  that  should  come  regularly  before 
them.  An  additional  motive  was  the  desire  to  preserve  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  church  from  all  control  by  lay  powers. 

During  the  century  since  the  Conquest  they  had  been  very 
successful  in  extending  the  judicial  powers  of  the  church.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  churchmen  contended  that  all  cases  of  the  follow- 
ing classes  had  to  be  tried  in  the  church  courts  :  those  in  which 
clergymen  were  concerned ;  those  in  which  church  property  was 
concerned  ;  those  which  had  to  do  with  marriages,  with  wills,  and 
with  inheritance ;  and  those  which  involved  any  question  of  a 
breach  of  an  oath.  The  church  courts  had  charge  also  of  all 
matters  of  religious  belief,  and  of  punishment  for  many  forms 


158  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

of  moral  ill-doing  which  were  not  crimes  in  the  eyes  of  the  com- 
mon law.  This  judicial  power  of  the  church  was  not  an  unnatu- 
ral growth.  The  more  confusion  there  was  in  the  other  branches 
of  government  the  more  were  the  services  of  the  church  courts 
needed.  The  inefficiency  of  secular  government  during  Stephen's 
time  was  largely  made  up  for  by  the  growing  activity  of  the  eccle- 
siastical courts.  Civilized  life  could  hardly  have  gone,  on  in  early 
times  if  much  of  the  work  which  in.  modern  times  is  done  by  gov- 
ernment had  not  then  been  done  by  the  church. 

131.  The  Canon  Law. — The  decisions  in  these  church  courts 
were  based  to  a  certain  extent  on  English  church  customs.     But 
gradually  in  Europe  at  large  a  great  body  of  precedents  and  deci- 
sions of  church  councils,  of  popes,  and  of  bishops  grew  up  that 
belonged  to  all  parts  of  the  Christian  world.     This  was  known  as 
the  "  canon  law."    About  1 140  a  collection  of  decisions  and  prin- 
ciples of  the  canon  law  was  made  by  a  learned  monk  of  Bologna 
in  Italy,  named  Gratian,  and  obtained  a  sort  of  official  accept- 
ance as  having  authority  on  the  questions  discussed  in  it.     After- 
wards from  time  to  time  new  collections  of  decisions  were  made, 
and  the  canon  law  came  to  be  a  system  and  a  study  in  itself.     It 
had  the  same  authority  in  the  church  courts  in  England  that  the 
common  law  had  in  the  king's  courts.     Young  clergymen  went 
abroad  to  make  a  special  study  of  the  canon  law,  or  spent  years 
in  the  households  of  bishops  where  it  was  studied  and  taught. 
Lawyers  familiar  with  the  canon  law  and  pleading  in  the  church 
courts  often  found  that  they  had  more  business  and  better  fees 
than  those  practicing  before  the  common  law  judges. 

132.  The  Clergy. — The  duties  connected  with  the  cathedrals, 
the  church  courts,  and  the  parish  churches  required  a  large  num- 
ber of  men.     Not  only  bishops,  canons,  archdeacons,  and  parish 
priests,  but  many  officials,  clerks,  advocates,  messengers,  servants, 
teachers,  stewards  of  church  lands  and  others  were  needed  to  ful- 
fill the  varied  duties  and  administer  the  large  property  and  income 
of  the  church.     All  these  were  churchmen,  admitted  to  at  least 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  159 

the  lower  degrees  of  the  ecclesiastical  order.  Even  boys  who 
were  studying  at  cathedral  schools  or  at  the  universities  were 
held  to  belong  to  the  clergy. 

Besides  the  secular  clergy  there  was  a  great  body  of  monks 
and  nuns.  There  had  been  a  revival  of  monasticism  soon  after 
the  time  of  the  Norman  Conquest  of  England.  The  old  Bene- 
dictine order  was  considered  by  many  not  to  be  strict  enough 
in  its  rules.  Several  reformed  orders  arose,  most  of  them  starting 
from  monasteries  in  France.  The  Cistercians,  the  Cluniacs,  the 
Augustinian  canons,  and  others  were  formed  with  more  rigid  rules 
of  life  and  more  complete  separation  from  the  world.  Kings, 
nobles,  and  lesser  men  gave  lands,  and  monastery  after  monastery 
was  founded,  often  in  remote  districts,  and  filled  with  monks 
or  nuns  of  one  or  other  of  the  new  orders.  One  hundred  and 
fifteen  monasteries  were  founded  in  England  in  Stephen's 
reign,  and  one  hundred  and  thirteen  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 
Although  this  rapidity  of  foundation  did  not  keep  up,  yet  there 
were  soon  added  to  the  two  hundred  or  so  early  Benedictine 
houses  a  vast  number  of  others  large  and  small.1  Each  one  of 
these  had  its  group  of  buildings,  its  body  of  members,  officials, 
and  servants,  and  its  landed  property ;  some  perhaps  having  only 
half  a  dozen  brethren,  but  others  with  as  many  as  a  hundred 
monks,  as  many  more  other  inmates,  and  a  vast  extent  of 
chapels,  cloisters,  dormitories,  hospital,  schoolrooms,  barns,  and 
other  buildings. 

I33«  Appeals  to  Rome.  —  All  these  churchmen  were  organized 
under  their  proper  authorities  and  according  to  established  rules. 
But  there  was  one  ecclesiastical  power  above  them  all.  This  was 
the  pope.  Persons  dissatisfied  with  decisions  given  by  the  church 
courts  appealed  to  the  court  of  the  pope  at  Rome  to  have  the 
decision  reversed  or  reheard.  Churchmen  high  in  position  fre- 
quently applied  directly  to  the  pope  to  have  their  suits  settled. 
Such  appeals  and  applications  were  increasing  in  number  during 

1  See  map  of  Early  Benedictine  Abbeys,  p.  77. 


l6o  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  reigns  of  Stephen  and  Henry  II.  This  was  due  partly  to  the 
higher  claims  of  power  and  influence  constantly  being  made  by 
the  central  authority  of  the  church  at  Rome  at  that  period,  and 
partly  to  the  greater  number  and  complexity  of  the  cases  com- 
ing up  in  the  church  courts  in  England. 

Thus  the  clergy  were  coming  to  be  a  class  of  persons  separate 
from  the  rest  of  the  nation,  closely  bound  together,  governed  by 
their  own  rules,  tried  by  their  own  courts,  subject  to  their  own 
laws,  supported  by  their  own  property,  and,  above  all,  apt  to  feel 
that  their  first  allegiance  was  due  not  to  the  king  but  to  the 
pope.  The  bonds  of  connection  with  the  pope  were  not  very 
many,  but  they  were  quite  sufficient  to  make  the  clergy  less  sub- 
missive to  the  king  than  the  laity  were.  The  archbishops  were 
required  to  wait  till  they  received  the  pallium  1  from  the  pope 
before  they  exercised  the  duties  of  their  office ;  abbots  of  the 
larger  abbeys  went  to  Rome  to  be  confirmed  in  their  offices 
after  their  election ;  certain  regular  and  many  occasional  pay- 
ments were  made  from  England  to  the  pope ;  special  representa- 
tives of  the  pope  came  to  England  from  time  to  time ;  and,  above 
all,  appeals  were  constantly  being  made  from  church  courts  in 
England  to  the  court  of  the  pope. 

This  organization  and  strength  of  the  clergy  as  a  class,  and 
their  connection  with  a  power  outside  of  the  country,  were  cer- 
tain to  lead  to  conflicts  with  the  government  of  the  country;  that 
is  to  say,  with  the  king  and  his  ministers  and  officials.  Many 
cases  of  appeal  had  nothing  to  do  with  general  questions  of 
faith  or  of  morals,  the  fundamental  matters  of  church  authority, 
but  to  matters  of  property  or  office ;  and  it  seemed  therefore 
improper  for  such  questions  to  go  out  of  England  for  decision. 
Conflicts  between  king  and  clergy  have  been  noticed  already ; 
but  the  most  bitter  dispute  as  to  the  respective  powers  of  the 
church  authorities  and  those  which  were  exercised  by  the  king 

1  This  was  a  collar  or  cape  of  emblematic  material  and  shape,  conferred 
by  the  pope  upon  every  archbishop  at  the  time  of  his  consecration. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  161 

or  his  ministers  was  in  the  time  of  Henry  II.  It  was  partly  a  per- 
sonal quarrel  between  King  Henry  and  Thomas,  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  partly  an  unavoidable  conflict  as  to  the  limits  of 
power  of  the  church  and  the  state. 

134.  Thomas  Becket.  — Thomas,  sometimes  called  Thomas  of 
London,  from  his  birthplace,  sometimes  Thomas  Becket  or  a 
Becket,  —  his  father's  personal  name  being  Becket,  —  and  in  later 
times  known  as  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  was  the  most  famous 
churchman  of  his  day.  He  had  been  educated  first  in  a  monas- 
tery school  and  then  at  Oxford.  He  was  afterwards  a.  member 
of  the  household  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  studied 
canon  law  in  France  and  Italy,  had  visited  the  papal  court  at 
Rome,  but  had  returned  and  was  acting  as  archdeacon  of  Canter- 
bury when  Henry  became  king.  He  was  learned,  brilliant,  hand- 
some, and  full  of  life.  Henry  appointed  him  to  the  high  office  of 
chancellor,  became  closely  attached  to  him,  intrusted  him  with 
many  important  duties  and  enriched  him  with  the  gift  of  valuable 
estates.  Many  of  the  reforms  of  the  early  part  of  Henry's  reign 
were  due  to  the  ability  and  energy  of  the  chancellor.  He  had 
a  nature  that  threw  itself  with  entire  devotion  into  whatever 
interest  he  was  occupied  with  at  the  time.  Fifty-two  clerks  were 
employed  under  him  when  he  occupied  the  office  of  chancellor. 
He  was  at  this  time  only  nominally  a  churchman,  as  he  had  not 
advanced  beyond  the  order  of  deacon,  and  had  little  personal 
piety  or  religious  interest.  His  manner  of  life  was  gorgeous  and 
worldly,  even  beyond  that  of  wealthy  noblemen  or  other  great 
ministers  of  the  king. 

After  Thomas  had  been  chancellor  for  eight  years,  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Canterbury  became  vacant  and  Henry  declared  his 
intention  of  making  him  archbishop  as  well  as  chancellor. 
Thomas,  who  understood  better  than  Henry  the  rising  conflict 
between  the  church  and  the  government,  tried  his  best  to  induce 
the  king  not  to  place  him  in  such  a  position  of  divided  allegiance. 
Henry,  however,  insisted  on  the  appointment,  and  Thomas  was 


162  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

ordained  priest,  and  elected  and  consecrated  archbishop.  He 
now  changed  his  course  of  life  to  that  of  a  devout  -churchman, 
and  threw  himself  as  heartily  into  the  work  of  his  archbishopric 
as  he  had  formerly  thrown  himself  into  that  of  student,  judge,  or 
minister.  Much  to  the  king's  surprise  and  vexation,  he  soon 
resigned  his  chancellorship.  The  double  position  of  chancellor 
and  archbishop  and  the  conflicting  claims  of  king  and  church  had 
proved  to  be  unendurable  to  a  man  of  Thomas's  strenuous  nature. 

When  the  king  in  1163  returned  from  five  years'  absence  in 
France  he  found  his  former  friend  and  minister  in  opposition  to 
him.  Discord  gradually  rose  higher  between  the  king  and  the 
archbishop.  Henry's  ambition  to  make  his  government  supreme 
in  England,  introducing  good  order,  royal  control,  and  royal 
taxation  everywhere,  met  an  obstacle  in  the  new  archbishop  as 
soon  as  any  question  of  the  position  of  the  clergy  arose.  Thomas 
represented  all  the  high  ideas  of  the  time  concerning  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  church,  just  as  Henry  represented  the  power 
of  the  civil  government.  Both  men  were  passionate  and  deter- 
mined, and  as  one  question  after  another  arose  in  which  they  were 
.opposed,  the  conflict  between  them  and  between  the  principles 
they  represented  grew  constantly  more  bitter. 

135.  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon.  — The  points  of  dispute 
that  came  up  most  frequently  were  those  connected  with  the 
church  courts.  The  king  claimed  that  they  were  doing  many 
things  that  they  had  no  right  to  do ;  that  they  were  deciding 
questions  of  property  which  ought  to  be  left  to  the  king's  courts, 
giving  more  lenient  punishments  to  clergymen  than  they  ought  to 
suffer,  and  sending  appeals  to  the  pope  on  questions  that  belonged 
to  English  common  law.  After  many  disputes,  a  great  council 
was  called  to  meet  at  Clarendon  in  1164  for  the  discussion  and 
settlement  of  these  matters.  At  this  council,  conferences  were 
held  between  the  king's  ministers  and  the  bishops,  and  between 
Thomas  and  Henry.  Finally  the  king  forced  the  archbishop 
to  say,  "  I  am  ready  to  keep  the  customs  of  the  kingdom  ";  and 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  163 

the  other  bishops  made  the  same  promise.  Then  the  question 
came  up  as  to  what  were  the  "  customs  of  the  kingdom,"  and  a 
group  of  the  members  of  the  council  were  ordered  by  the  king 
to  put  them  into  writing.  Some  days  afterwards  they  presented 
to  the  full  council  a  document  which  the  archbishop  asserted  to 
be  the  partisan  work  of  the  king's  justiciar  and  of  hostile  barons, 
but  which  Henry  asserted  to  be  a  fair  statement  by  the  earls, 
barons,  and  bishops  of  the  old  customs  which  were  more  particu- 
larly in  dispute,  and  which  the  churchmen  had  sworn  to  obey. 

The  most  important  matters  dealt  with  in  this  document,  which 
became  known  as  the  "Constitutions  of  Clarendon,"1  had  refer- 
ence to  the  respective  powers  of  the  church  courts  and  the  king's 
courts.  The  Constitutions  restricted  the  rights  of  the  church 
courts  in  many  respects,  requiring  churchmen  to  bring  their  suits 
and  to  answer  to  suits  in  the  king's  courts  in  many  classes  of 
cases.  One  of  the  principal  points  of  this  kind  was  that  which 
required  that  a  clergyman  accused  of  a  crime  if  found  guilty  in 
the  ecclesiastical  court  should  be  handed  over  to  the  ordinary 
courts  for  punishment.  Another  forbade  appeals  from  the  church 
courts  to  the  pope  without  the  special  permission  of  the  king. 
A  vast  amount  of  business  usually  carried  on  in  the  church  courts 
was  transferred  with  all  its  profits  to  the  courts  of  the  king. 

Thomas  refused  to  accept  or  to  put  his  seal  to  the  Constitu- 
tions thus  drawn  up.  When  the  king  called  upon  him  to  do  so 
he  cried  out,  "  Never,  never,  while  there  is  a  breath  left  in  my 
body."  The  other  bishops  followed  his  example.  The  proposed 

1  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  must  not  be  confused  with  the  Assize 
of  Clarendon  issued  two  years  afterwards.  Clarendon  was  a  small  palace 
or  hunting  seat  belonging  to  the  king,  on  the  edge  of  the  New  Forest  in 
Wiltshire,  to  which  he  summoned  the  two  councils  in  which  these  laws 
were  decided  upon.  The  Assize  of  Clarendon  established  rules  for  the 
king's  courts ;  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  were  intended  to  regulate 
the  actions  of  the  church  courts.  The  latter  can  be  found  in  Translations 
and  Reprints,  Vol.  I,  No.  6.  The  most  important  clauses  are  I,  2,  7,  8, 
and  13. 


164  'A   SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

law  really  involved  the  whole  question  of  the  degree  of  independ- 
ence of  the  church.  If  Thomas  gave  way  to  this  interpretation 
of  the  law  he  would,  as  he  claimed,  not  only  be  going  back 
to  a  period  when  the  church  authorities  had  been  too  much  con- 
trolled by  the  king,  but  doing  worse.  He  would  be  accepting  new 
laws  which  would  make  the  church  as  dependent  upon  the  govern- 
ment as  if  it  had  no  higher  claims  and  higher  duties  to  uphold  and 
perform.  He  felt  that  it  was  putting  the  church  with  its  officers 
and  courts  and  canon  law,  with  all  their  enlightenment  and  superior- 
ity and  religious  authority,  under  the  control  of  the  mere  physical 
power  and  arbitrary  judgment  of  the  king  and  his  ministers. 

136.  Exile  of  Thomas.  — The  archbishop  left  the  council,  and 
protested  against  putting  the  Constitutions  into  force,  though  the 
king  insisted  that  they  had  been  properly  drawn  up  and  that  they 
should  be  accepted  as  law.     Both  parties  appealed  to  the  pope, 
and  a  long  contest  ensued  that  became  more  and  more  bitter  and 
more  and  more  personal.     After  other  councils  and  quarrels,  in 
which  Thomas  claimed  to  be  in  danger  of  death  from  the  king's 
attendants,  he    escaped    from    England   secretly  with   a   single 
attendant  and  went  to  France.     Henry  confiscated  the  estates  of 
Thomas  and  all  his  adherents,  friends,  and  relatives,  and  ban- 
ished four  hundred  of  them  from  England.     Thomas  in  return 
threatened  excommunication  against  the  royal  ministers  who  had 
opposed  him,  held  a  threat  of  excommunication  over  the  king  him- 
self, and  even  tried  to  induce  the  pope  to  place  England  under 
an  interdict.     Several  interviews  were  held  between   the  king 
and  the  archbishop  at  different  times  and  places  in  France,  but 
they  led  to  no  satisfactory  results.     However,  after  more  than 
six  years  of  exile  he  obtained  permission  to  return  to  England  to 
take  charge  of  his  office,  with  its  long  unfulfilled  duties. 

137.  Murder  of  Thomas. — The   archbishop   returned  with  a 
determination  still  to  insist  on  the  immunities  of  the  church  and  to 
punish  those  who  had  been  most  active  in  the  struggle  against  him. 
He  proceeded  to  excommunicate  without  royal  license  three  of 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  165 

the  bishops  who  had  taken  the  king's  side,  and  the  soldiers  of  the 
king  who  had  seized  and  ravaged  the  estates  of  the  archbishopric. 
News  of  these  illegal  and  injurious  actions  was  taken  to  the  king, 
who  was  in  Normandy,  and  in  one  of  his  habitual  fits  of  wild 
anger  he  cried  out,  "  What  cowards  have  I  nourished  in  my  house 
that  not  one  of  them  will  avenge  me  on  this  turbulent  priest !" 

Henry  can  hardly  have  had  any  distinct  intention  when  he 
uttered  these  words,  but  four  of  his  knights  took  them  seriously 
and  vowed  to  kill  the  archbishop.  They  crossed  immediately  to 
England  by  separate  routes,  met  again  there,  gathered  a  group  of 
followers,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  brutally  murdered  the  arch- 
bishop with  their  swords, 
in  the  transept  of  the  ca- 
thedral  of  Canterbury. 

The  whole  of  Europe 
soon  rang  with  the  news  of 
the  deed.  Henry  heard 
of  it  with  deep  regret  and 
shut  himself  up,  refusing 
for  several  days  to  eat  any-  The  Murder  of  Archbishop  Thomas  (from 
thing  or  to  see  any  one.  a  manuscript  of  Matthew  Paris) 

The  pope  likewise  refused  for  days  to  see  any  one.  The  victory 
that  Thomas  had  not  been  able  to  win  in  his  lifetime  he  gained 
by  his  death.  Murdered  as  it  were  on  the  very  steps  of  the 
altar,  he  was  immediately  considered  a  martyr.  The  people  of 
England  grieved  for  him  as  though  he  had  stood  out  for  their 
universal  liberties  instead  of  for  those  of  the  church  alone.  For 
centuries  he  remained  the  most  popular  in  the  catalogue  of 
English  saints,  and  thousands  of  persons  each  year  made  pilgrim- 
ages to  the  shrine  where  his  body  was  buried  at  Canterbury. 
Henry  took  an  oath  declaring  his  innocence  of  the  murder,  gave 
a  large  sum  of  money  for  pious  uses,  and  withdrew  several  of 
the  most  important  clauses  of  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon. 
A  year  afterwards  the  king  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Canterbury,  and 


166  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

entered  the  city  walking  with  bare  feet  and  without  eating  any 
food  for  the  whole  day.  He  threw  himself  in  prayer  at  the  tomb 
of  Thomas,  then  went  to  the  chapter-house,  where  on  his  knees 
before  a  body  of  bishops,  abbots,  and  monks  he  confessed  his 
faults,  and  baring  his  shoulders  required  each  person  present  to 
strike  him  three  times  with  the  knotted  cord  used  in  monastic 
discipline.  Afterwards  he  spent  the  night  in  prayer  at  the  tomb, 
attended  mass  in  the  morning,  and  then  took  horse  to  London, 
cheerful  in  mind,  but  so  broken  in  body  by  his  penance  that  he 
became  ill  immediately  afterwards.  Henry's  personal  penance 
seems  to  have  been  quite  voluntary  and  self-inflicted,  to  relieve 
his  own  religious  sense  of  wrongdoing.  His  submission  in  points 
of  policy  was  wrested  from  him  by  the  force  of  necessity,  in 
order  to  recover  some  of  his  lost  popularity,  and  he  quietly  rein- 
troduced  much  of  what  he  seemed  to  have  given  up. 

138.  Unpopularity  of  the  King.  — The  popularity  of  Thomas 
with  the  great  body  of  the  people  had  arisen  partly  from  the  real 
services  performed  for  them  by  the  church  of  which  he  was  the 
representative,  partly  from  their  sympathy  with  any  form  of  opposi- 
tion to  the  stern  king.     The  church  came  closer  than  the  govern- 
ment to  the  mass  of  the  people.     It  did  more  for  them,  its  lower 
clergy  were  members  of  the  families  of  the  common  people,  and  its 
courts  followed  a  milder  code.    The  rigorous  reforms  of  the  king, 
on  the  other  hand,  however  useful  in  putting  down  disorder  and 
introducing  unity  in  the  nation,  bore  with  great  hardship  on  all 
classes  of  the  people.  The  constant  fines  imposed  by  the  courts,  the 
severe  punishments  inflicted,  the  hard  service  on  juries,  the  trans- 
formation of  all  duties  into  the  form  of  money  payments,  were  hard 
to  endure.    His  firm  government  and  new  laws  would  bear  fruit  in 
the  future,  but  their  value  was  not  recognized  by  the  men  of  his 
time.     Certainly  Henry  obtained  no  popularity,  and  resistance  to 
him  was  always  looked  upon  with  sympathy  by  many  people. 

139.  New  Revolt  of  the  Baronage.  —  In  his  continental  domin- 
ions Henry  had  constant  conflicts  with  the  baronage.     Thirteen 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  167 

times  in  one  period  of  two  years  he  had  to  meet  revolts  of  nobles 
in  various  parts  of  his  French  domains.  In  England,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  heavy  hand  of  the  king  when  he  was  present,  or  of  the 
justiciars  in  his  absence,  and  the  constant  routine  of  the  govern- 
ment kept  almost  uninterrupted  good  order.  After  the  struggle 
during  the  first  year  of  his  reign  eighteen  years  passed  by  without 
resistance  to  his  power.  Then  in  1173  a  new  revolt  broke  out, 
gathering  around  Henry,  the  king's  eldest  son,  who  had  been 
already  crowned  to  secure  his  succession  as  the  future  king  of 
England.  But  this  revolt  also  Henry  put  down,  required  a  new 
oath  of  fealty  from  all  Englishmen  high  and  low,  strengthened 
the  power  of  the  justices,  and  assembled  the  nobles  in  frequent 
meetings  of  the  great  council.  Severe  as  were  the  struggles  in 
which  King  Henry  was  engaged  throughout  his  life,  he  was 
almost  uniformly  victorious,  either  by  warfare  or  by  policy. 

140.  Scotland  and  Wales.  —  The  king  of  Scotland  had  joined 
the  rebellious  barons  of  1173  and  invaded  the  north  of  England. 
He  was,  however,  defeated  and  captured  by  the  justiciar  and 
sheriff  with  the  people  of  the  northern  shires.     Henry  would  not 
release  him  till  he  and  his  barons  had  done  homage  to  the  Eng- 
lish king  and  acknowledged  Scotland  to  be  a  fief  of  England. 
This  agreement  is  known  as  the  "Treaty  of  Falaise,"  and  forms 
an  important  link  in  the  chain  by  which  England  tried  to  bind 
to  herself  the  northern  half  of  the  island.     Three  times  Henry 
invaded  Wales  also,  in  the  effort  to  force  the  Welsh  princes  to 
submission,'  but  with  only  partial  success.     The  Welsh  mountains 
and  the  wild  methods  of  Welsh  warfare  then,  as  so  often  before 
and  afterwards,  made  the  English  invasions  fruitless. 

141.  The  Conquest  of  Ireland. — In  Ireland  somewhat  greater 
success  was  attained,  although  to  the  overlordship  of  both  Scot- 
land and  Wales  there  were  old  claims,  while  there  was  no  such  basis 
for  Henry's  intrusion  into  Ireland.     Justification  for  its  invasion 
was  found  partly  in  a  bull  given  by  the  pope  empowering  Henry 
to   conquer   Ireland    and    reduce   it   to  a  more   orderly  church 


1 68 


A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 


government,  partly  in  the  appeal  for  help  of  the  native  Irish  king 
of  Leinster,  Dermot  McMurrough,  who  had  been  driven  out  of 
his  dominions.  In  1170  a  number  of  English  nobles  went  over 
with  McMurrough,  defeated  the  Irish  chieftains  of  the  southeast, 
reestablished  the  fugitive  king  in  his  dominions,  and  gained 
extensive  lordships  for  themselves  there  in  return  for  their  aid. 
The  next  year  Henry  himself  went  to  Ireland  and  received  the  vol- 
untary homage  of  these  English  nobles  and  of  a  large  number  of 
Irish  chieftains.  After  this  time  the  English  kings  added  "  Lord 
of  Ireland"  to  their  other  titles.  A  representative  of  the  English 
king  was  appointed  to  remain  in  Ireland,  and  a  group  of  officials 
were  established  there  ;  but  their  power  did  not  extend  beyond  the 
district  surrounding  Dublin,  later  known  as  the  "  English  Pale." 

142.  Close  of  the  Reign.  —  The  last  ten  years  of  Henry's  life 
were  peaceful  and  successful  years  as  far  as  his  government  of 
England  was  concerned,  but  his  personal  happiness  was  destroyed 
by  rebellions  in  his  dominions  on  the  continent  in  which  his  sons 

were  engaged.  He 
loved  his  children 
deeply,  and  his  life 
was  embittered  by 
their  entire  want  of 
affection  for  him 
and  their  readiness 
to  join  with  his 
enemies.  Time  and 
again  not  only 
Henry,  the  young 
king,  but  Richard, 
to  whom  he  had 
granted  Aquitaine, 

Geoffrey,  who  was  duke  of  Brittany,  and  his  youngest  and  best 
beloved  son,  John,  leagued  themselves  together  or  with  the  king 
of  France  to  fight  against  him.  In  1189,  when  he  was  ill  and 


Tomb  of  Henry  II  and  his  Wife  Eleanor  in  the 
Abbey  of  Fontevrault 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  169 


Ireland  in  the  Middle  Ages :  the  Four  Kingdoms,  the  Location  of  some 
of  the  Principal  Clans,  the  Principal  Towns,  and  the  District  later 
known  as  the  "  Pale." 


170  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

unprepared,  combined  forces  of  foreign  opponents  and  Angevin 
rebels  led  by  his  sons  Richard  and  John  and  the  king  of  France 
suddenly  invaded  his  French  provinces,  captured  a  number  of  his 
castles,  defeated  him  in  battle,  and  forced  him  to  a  humiliating 
treaty.  When  he  learned  that  even  John  had  been  among  the 
rebels  he  was  broken-hearted,  made  no  effort  to  rally  from  his 
illness,  and  took  no  further  interest  in  anything.  He  died  the 
same  year,  moaning,  "Shame,  shame  on  a  conquered  king."  His 
tomb  is  still  perfect  in  the  nunnery  at  Fontevrault,  in  his  native 
land  of  Anjou. 

143.  The  Literary  Revival  under  Henry  II.  —  The  activity  of 
this  period  showed  itself  in  learning  and  literature  as  much  as 
it  did  in  the  development  of  law  and  of  institutions  of  state  and 
church.  A  number  of  learned,  gifted,  and  witty  men  gathered 
around  Henry  II  or  occupied  offices  in  England  in  his  time.  The 
judges  who  gave  the  great  decisions  on  the  common  law  have 
already  been  spoken  of.  Many  of  these  studied  Roman  law  in 
Italy  and  France.  Richard,  bishop  of  London  and  treasurer  of 
the  realm,  wrote  a  long  description  of  the  financial  system  of  the 
government  entitled  the  Dialogue  concerning  the  Exchequer?  and 
Glanville,  one  of  the  king's  justices,  either  wrote  or  helped  in  the 
writing  of  a  corresponding  description  of  the  work  of  the  curia 
regis.  This  is  known  as  the  Treatise  concerning  the  Laws  and 
Customs  of  England.  Many  of  the  churchmen  of  that  time  were 
learned  theologians  and  philosophers.  John  of  Salisbury  wrote  a 
book  which  he  named  the  Polycraticus,  discussing  a  great  variety 
of  moral,  political,  and  educational  questions.  The  prominent 
men  of  the  time  wrote  a  vast  number  of  letters,  many  of  which 
have  been  preserved.  The  old  group  of  chroniclers  who  wrote 
in  the  time  of  Henry  I  and  Stephen  had  died,  but  a  new  group 
of  historians,  many  of  whom  were  pupils,  friends,  or  officials  of 
Thomas  Becket,  arose  in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 

1  A  translation  of  this  can  be  found  in  Henderson's  Select  Mediaval 
Documents,  pp.  20-134. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  171 

Some  more  varied  works  were  written,  such  as  those  in  which 
Gerald  de  Barry,  or  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  as  he  called  himself, 
described  Ireland  and  Wales  and  the  campaigns  against  them  dur- 
ing his  time.  There  was  also  a  body  of  verse,  produced  no  doubt 
by  various  writers,  but  all  usually  attributed  to  Walter  Map,  arch- 
deacon of  Oxford,  which  ridiculed  the  vices  of  the  time,  especially 
those  prevalent  among  the  clergy.  These  are  called  Goliardic 
poems,  from  the  name  of  one  of  them,  the  Confession  of  Bishop 
Golias. 

All  these  works  were  written  in  Latin  and  could  be  read  only 
by  the  learned,  that  is  to  say,  by  churchmen.  But  some  of  the 
classical  Latin  works  were  now  translated  into  French  and  there 
was  some  original  writing  in  the  same  language,  which  could  be 
understood  by  the  barons  and  their  families  and  even  by  the 
better  educated  of  the  townsmen. 

144.  Richard  I  and  the  Third  Crusade.  — The  greater  activity 
of  mind  shown  by  this  large  amount  of  writing  and  reading  was 
partly  at  least  a  result  of  the  Crusades.  Since  1096  the  eyes 
of  Christendom  had  been  turned  eastward  towards  Palestine,  and 
great  numbers  of  volunteers  from  the  western  countries  of  Europe 
had  gone  in  armed  bands  to  capture  the  Holy  Land  from  the 
Mohammedans  who  held  it,  and  to  secure  for  themselves  princi- 
palities and  estates  there.  On  the  First  Crusade,  which  succeeded 
in  capturing  Jerusalem  in  1099,  Robert  of  Normandy,  the  eldest 
son  of  the  Conqueror,  and  many  other  French  nobles  had  gone. 
Half  a  century  later  another  great  army  was  equipped  and  went 
to  Palestine  under  the  leadership  of  the  king  of  France  and  the 
German  emperor.  Just  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  II,  Jeru- 
salem was  recaptured  by  the  Mohammedans,  and  a  third  expedi- 
tion was  organized  in  Europe  to  regain  it  for  the  Christians.  The 
most  prominent  leader  on  the  Third  Crusade  was  Richard  I,  who 
succeeded  his  father,  Henry  II,  as  king  of  England  in  1189. 

Richard  was  like  his  father  in  his  ungovernable  temper  and 
wild  outbursts  of  anger,  but  in  scarcely  any  other  way.  He  was 


172  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

tall  and  long  limbed.  He  had  greater  military  genius,  but  less 
statesmanship.  He  was  fickle  instead  of  persistent,  warm-hearted 
instead  of  calculating.  He  was  proud,  cruel,  and  treacherous.  He 
had,  however,  the  poetic  gifts,  the  generous  impulses,  the  mercurial 
temperament  of  the  Aquitanian  lands  in  which  he  had  spent  most 
of  his  life.  He  was  called  "  Richard  Yea  and  Nay,"  because  he 
was  so  ready  to  change  the  plans  on  which  he  had  before  deter- 
mined. His  great  power  was  in  his  physical  and  mental  capacity 
as  a  soldier,  and  in  his  strenuous  and  irrepressible  courage. 

145.  Richard's  Capture  and  Ransom.  — The  king  sailed  with 
his  crusading  army,  made  up  of  volunteers  from  all  parts  of  his 
dominions,  from  Marseilles  by  way  of  Sicily  in  1190.  The  next 
two  years  were  full  of  romantic  and  brilliant  adventures  in  which 
Richard  won  his  name  of  Ccsur  de  Lion,  or  "Lion-heart,"  and 
left  the  reputation  of  a  great  warrior  in  all  the  eastern  countries. 

But  the  effort  to  recapture  Jerusalem 
and  reestablish  a  great  Christian 
kingdom  in  Palestine  was  a  failure. 
Richard  had  also  quarreled  with  the 
king  of  France,  the  emperor,  and 
other  leaders.  On  his  journey  home 
he  was  shipwrecked,  captured,  and 
held  for  ransom  by  the  emperor  in 
Germany.  An  enormous  sum  was 
demanded  by  his  captors,  and  this 
was  at  last  obtained,  or  enough  of 
it  to  secure  his  release.  His  minis- 
ters in  England  not  only  levied  the 
Richard  I  (from  the  figure  on  heavy  feudal  aid  tQ  ransom  the 

his  tomb  at  Fontevrault) 

tenant  s  lord  when  captured,  which 

could  be  justified  by  old  custom,  but  also  imposed  direct  taxes 
upon  the  clergy  and  the  common  people.  Many  concessions  were 
also  granted  by  the  king,  or  in  his  name,  to  persons  who  wished 
privileges  from  the  government  and  were  willing  to  pay  for  them. 


;; 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  173 

146.  Influence  of  the  Crusades.  —  All  the  power  which  the  gov- 
ernment had  secured  under  Henry  II  was  needed  to  obtain  the 
funds  demanded  by  Richard.  He  wanted  money  for  his  Crusade, 
for  his  wars  on  the  continent,  and  for  his  ransom.  Richard 
himself  was  in  his  English  kingdom  but  twice  in  his  reign  of  ten 
years, — once  for  four  months  at  the  time  of 
his  coronation,  and  once  again  for  two  months, 
five  years  later.  But  the  government  was  car- 
ried on  in  his  name  by  a  series  of  vigorous 
and  powerful  justiciars  who  had  been  officials 
of  Henry  II.  The  newly  instituted  procedure 
of  government  became  well  established ;  the 

action  of  the  officials  in  carrying  on  the  Exche- 

.11',  ...  ,        Coat  of  Arms  of 

quer,  the  king  s  court,  the  circuit  courts,  and  R. 

the  shire  courts,  was  more  regular  and  better 
understood  and  accepted ;  the  enforcement  of  the  common  law 
and  the  use  of  juries  were  extended ;  the  transformation  of  all 
services  into  the  form  of  money  payments  was  carried  further. 
Thus  although  the  personal  influence  of  the  king  in  English  affairs 
was  unimportant,  his  absence  in  the  Holy  Land  and  on  the  con- 
tinent gave  an  opportunity  for  government  to  consolidate  itself 
and  for  the  different  courts  and  departments  to  get  in  the  habit 
of  acting  for  themselves  almost  apart  from  the  king. 

Some  other  effects  of  the  Crusades  were  even  more  important 
and  far-reaching  than  those  upon  the  government.  The  restless 
adventurers  from  England,  in  their  journeys  to  the  East  and  in 
their  intercourse  with  the  Greeks  and  the  Saracens  there,  came 
in  contact  with  a  civilization  far  higher  than  they  were  used  to  in 
England.  They  brought  back  new  habits  of  life  and  new  ideas 
borrowed  from  these  nations.  They  became  used  to  the  different 
kinds  of  food  and  dress,  and  to  many  conveniences  previously 
unknown  in  western  Europe.  Besides,  they  were  stirred  by  the 
experience  of  foreign  travel  and  adventure.  The  isolation  of 
England  was  lessened  and  she  was  brought  by  the  Crusades  more 


1/4  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

into  the  general  life  of  Europe,  just  at  the  time  when  the  con- 
tinental countries  themselves  were  being  awakened  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Crusades.  Besides  this,  more  active  commerce 
between  the  East  and  the  West  came  into  existence  as  a  result 
of  the  Crusades,  and  England  had  some  share  in  this. 

147.  King  John.  —  Richard  had  no  children,  and  John,   his 
youngest  brother,  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  England.1    John 
was  one  of  the  worst  kings  in  English  history.     Nevertheless  the 
seventeen  years  of  his  reign  included  three  occurrences  of  great 
importance.    These  were,  first,  the  loss  by  the  king  of  his  domin- 
ions on  the  continent;   second,  a  long  contest  with  the  pope 
which  placed  the  church  in  a  more  independent  position  than 
before  j  and  third,  a  rebellion,  as  a  result  of  which  the  king  was 
forced  to  accept  for  the  future  certain  restrictions  on  his  freedom 
of  action. 

148.  Loss  of  the  Continental  Provinces. — The  king  of  France 
was  ambitious  to  extend  his  power  more  completely  over  the  whole 
of  that  country.     The  territory  immediately  subject  to  him  was 
comparatively  small.    The  other  provinces  were  held  from  him  by 
great  dukes,  counts,  and  viscounts,  who  took  oaths  of  feudal  alle- 
giance to  him  but  otherwise  ruled  their  own  subtenants  in  prac- 
tical independence.     A  large  group  of  these  provinces  was  held, 
as  has  been  explained,  by  the  king  of  England.     The  king  of 
France  now  took  advantage  of  the  hostility  to  John  of  many  of  the 
barons  of  Normandy,  Anjou,  Poitou,  and  other  provinces,  and  of 

1  Geoffrey,  who  was  next  younger  than  Richard  and  therefore  older  than 
John,  was  dead,  but  his  son  Arthur  was  living  and  according  to  the  usual  cus- 
tom of  inheritance  had  a  better  right  to  the  throne  than  John.  But  he  was 
a  mere  child,  living  in  France,  while  John  was  a  man  of  thirty-two  years 
of  age,  had  lived  long  in  England,  and  was  preferred  as  his  successor  by 
Richard.  Besides,  the  strict  custom  of  inheritance  of  the  crown  by  primo- 
geniture had  not  yet  been  fully  accepted,  and  it  was  felt  that  the  great  men 
of  the  realm  might  exercise  some  right  of  choice.  Nevertheless  a  large 
party  of  the  barons  of  the  continental  dominions  declared  for  Arthur,  and 
his  claims  were  upheld  by  the  king  of  France. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL   UNITY  175 

the  claims  of  John's  nephew  Arthur,  to  summon  John  in  1202  to 
attend  a  feudal  court  made  up  of  the  dukes  and  counts  of  France. 
John  refused  to  attend.  The  king  of  France  then  declared  his 
territories  forfeited  by  feudal  law,  and  proceeded  to  march  into 
Normandy,  Anjou,  Maine,  and  Poitou,  and  to  take  them  immedi- 
ately into  his  own  hands.  John  made  no  sufficient  effort  to  resist 
him,  the  barons  of  those  provinces  accepted  the  French  king,  and 
thus  all  John's  dominions  in  France  except  those  in  the  far  south 
were  lost  to  him.  England,  which  had  been  united  through  her 
kings  with  Normandy  almost  continuously  for  a  century  and  a 
half,  and  with  the  other  provinces  for  more  than  fifty  years,  was 
now  separated  almost  completely  from  the  continent. 

This  threw  England  far  more  on  her  own  resources.  The 
barons  who  had  held  estates  on  both  sides  of  the  Channel  now 
had  to  dispose  of  either  their  Norman  or  their  English  possessions 
and  become  either  Frenchmen  or  Englishmen.  The  kings  too 
from  this  time  forward  had  far  the  greater  part  of  their  inter- 
ests in  England,  seldom  visiting  even  the  dominions  which  they 
still  possessed  in  Aquitaine. 

149.  Disputed  Election  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury.— 
The  quarrel  with  the  pope  occurred  in  connection  with  the  elec- 
tion of  a  new  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  According  to  canon  law 
the  election  of  a  bishop  or  archbishop  should  be  made  by  the  can- 
ons of  the  cathedral  of  the  diocese.  In  England  the  influence 
of  the  king  had  generally  been  sufficient  to  induce  the  canons  to 
elect  the  man  he  nominated  to  them.  In  the  case  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  this  was  especially  the  case,  as  he  was  in  the 
position  almost  of  an  official  adviser  to  the  king.  Besides  this 
the  other  bishops  were  much  interested  in  the  choice  of  their 
superior,  and  his  selection  had  therefore  often  been  a  matter 
of  discussion  in  a  great  council.  The  pope  also  had  a  certain 
degree  of  control  of  the  choice  of  archbishops,  as  previously 
explained.  Thus  there  were  two  parties  interested  in  the  election 
of  any  bishop,  the  king  and  the  canons  of  the  cathedral.  In  the 


i;6  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

case  of  an  archbishop  there  were  two  additional  parties,  the 
pope  and  the  bishops  of  the  dioceses  which  were  in  his  province 
and  would  be  under  his  supervision. 

When  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  died  in  1205,  the  canons 
of  the  cathedral,  who  had  long  been  desirous  of  asserting  higher 
claims  to  independence,  met  the  night  after  his  death  and, 
without  consulting  the  king  or  any  one  else,  elected  one  of  their 
number  as  archbishop.  They  sent  him  immediately  to  Rome  to 
obtain  consecration  and  the  pallium  from  the  pope.  When  news 
of  what  had  been  done  reached  John  he  was  extremely  angry. 
He  appealed  to  the  pope  against  the  election,  and  immediately, 
without  awaiting  a  decision  from  the  pope,  forced  the  canons  by 
threats  to  hold  a  new  meeting  and  elect  another  clergyman,  one 
of  his  own  ministers,  to  be  archbishop.  The  king  then  put  this 
nominee  into  possession  of  the  estates  of  the  archbishopric.  The 
other  bishops  of  the  province  of  Canterbury  also  appealed  to  the 
pope.  The  appeals  dragged  on  as  usual  at  the  papal  court,  till 
after  a  year  and  a  half  the  pope  with  his  advisers  decided  against 
all  three  parties  :  against  the  canons  because  of  their  hurried  and 
irregular  election ;  against  the  other  English  bishops  because 
they  had  no  claims  by  canon  law  to  interfere  ;  and  against  the  king 
because  his  appointee  had  acted  as  archbishop  while  an  appeal 
was  pending.  Under  the  circumstances,  since  the  representatives 
of  all  parties  were  at  Rome  with  power  to  act,  the  pope  advised 
that  they  proceed  to  elect  another  man  then  and  there,  and 
recommended  to  them  a  learned  and  pious  English  clergyman 
living  at  the  papal  court,  Stephen  Langton.  Under  pressure 
from  the  pope  this  was  agreed  to  by  the  representatives  of  the 
chapter  of  the  cathedral,  and  all  the  forms  of  election  of  Stephen 
Langton  were  gone  through  with. 

John,  however,  was  again  furious,  and  a  long  exchange  of  em- 
bassies and  letters  took  place.  The  pope  asserted  that  it  was 
in  his  power  and  a  part  of  his  duty  under  the  circumstances  to 
see  that  Canterbury  was  provided  with  a  proper  archbishop.  The 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  177 

king,  on  the  other  hand,  refused  to  accept  the  pope's  nominee 
or  to  give  up  his  own. 

150.  The  Interdict After  three  years  the  pope  laid  England 

under  an  interdict :  that  is  to  say,  all  public  religious  services  were 
ordered  to  be  suspended.  No  church  bells  were  rung,  no  church 
service  was  held,  no  marriage  ceremonies  were  performed,  no 
burial  service  was  read  over  the  dead,  no  wills  were  probated. 
The  country  ceased,  to  all  outward  appearance,  to  be  a  Christian 
land.  The  people  were  deprived  of  their  religious  services  as  com- 
pletely as  a  famine  would  have  deprived  them  of  food.  In  a  reli- 
gious period  like  the  middle  ages  the  distress  of  the  people  must 
have  been  almost  as  great  in  the  former  case  as  in  the  latter. 

It  was  expected  that  this  distress  on  the  part  of  the  people  would 
lead  them  to  compel  the  king  to  give  way,  but  John  cared  little 
for  the  suffering  or  distress  of  the  people,  and  himself  seemed 
quite  without  religious  feeling.  He  seized  the  possessions  of  the 
bishops  who  obeyed  the  interdict  and  banished  them  from  the 
kingdom.  Year  after  year  passed  away  and  still  the  king  refused 
to  accept  Langton,  and  continued  to  oppress  the  churchmen. 

Then  the  pope  prepared  to  excommunicate  John,1  to  declare 
his  deposition  from  the  throne,  to  absolve  the  English  people 
from  their  allegiance  to  him  and  to  intrust  the  king  of  France  with 
the  carrying  out  of  these  decrees.  Such  a  threat  would  mean 
little  if  an  English  king  were  strong  and  popular  in  his  own 
country,  but  John  had  rapidly  lost  the  respect  and  the  love  of  all 
classes  of  the  people.  His  failure  to  keep  or  to  regain  Normandy 
and  Anjou  had  made  the  nobles  look  on  him  as  either  too  cow- 
ardly or  too  indolent  for  a  king.  He  was  untruthful,  dishonest, 

1  Excommunication  was  a  solemn  service  of  the  church  by  which  the 
man  excommunicated  was  declared  to  be  expelled  from  the  society  of 
Christians.  He  was  deprived  of  all  religious  services  and  comforts,  was 
pronounced  incapable  of  being  legally  married  or  of  inheriting  or  bequeath- 
ing property,  and  if  he  died  without  the  excommunication  being  removed, 
he  was  considered  to  be  without  hope  of  entering  heaven  after  death. 


178  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  treacherous.  He  had  inflicted  private  injuries  on  many  of  the 
barons  and  members  of  their  families.  He  had  divorced  his  wife, 
the  countess  of  Gloucester,  and  married  Isabella  of  Angouleme, 
a  young  girl  who  was  already  betrothed  to  one  of  his  nobles  on 
the  continent.  He  was  profane,  tyrannical,  and  violent,  and  he 
had  therefore  neither  the  support  of  the  clergy  nor  the  love  of 
the  people.  Of  all  the  kings  of  England  none  has  left  the  reputa- 
tion of  more  complete  failure  as  a  ruler  and  greater  un worthiness 
as  a  private  man. 

151.  Victory  of  the  Pope.  —  John  knew  his  unpopularity,  and 
as  he  heard  of  the  plots  against  him  and  of  wild  prophecies  of  his 
death  or  coming  deposition  he  suddenly  gave  way,  surrendered 
every  point  for  which  he  had  struggled,  and  made  terms  with  the 
pope.  In  making  this  surrender  of  his 
claims  the  king  humiliated  himself  far 
more  than  was  necessary.  He  allowed 
an  envoy  of  the  pope  to  come  to  England, 
and  agreed  to  receive  Langton  as  arch- 
bishop, to  reinstate  the  exiled  bishops, 
and  to  restore  all  church  property  that 
he  had  seized.  He  even  went  one  step 
further  and  transformed  the  shadowy  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  pope  as  a  superior 
ruler  made  by  some  former  kings  into  a 
complete  recognition  of  his  feudal  supe- 
riority. There  was  an  old  claim  of  the 
King  John  (from  the  figure  popes  that  all  islands  were  under  their 
on  his  tomb  in  Worcester  direct  controi.  This  ha(j  been  already 

acknowledged  in  a  general  way  by  the 

king  of  Sicily  and  partially  at  least  by  Henry  II  and  Richard  for 
England  and  Ireland.  John,  however,  now  went  down  on  his 
knees  before  the  representative  of  the  pope,  resigning  his  crown 
into  the  hands  of  the  legate  and  receiving  it  back  from  him 
in  token  that  the  king  would  be  henceforth  the  pope's  vassal. 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL   UNITY  179 

He  drew  up  and  issued  a  formal  acknowledgment  of  his  feudal 
dependence  on  the  pope  for  England  and  Ireland,  and  agreed  to 
pay  a  certain  sum  to  the  pope  each  year  as  a  recognition  of  it. 
The  barons,  the  clergy,  and  the  people  of  England  made  no  oppo- 
sition at  the  time  to  the  king's  action,  the  removal  of  the  interdict 
being  gladly  welcomed  by  all.  But  it  was  too  late  for  John  to  regain 
popularity  if  he  had  tried.  By  his  unpatriotic  subserviency  he  had 
only  separated  himself  still  more  completely  from  all  classes  of 
Englishmen  and  obtained  the  favor  of  the  pope  alone. 

152.  Revolt  against  the  King. — This  unpopularity  of  the  king 
proved  to  be  of  great  importance  during  the  remaining  three 
years  of  his  reign.  The  strong  government  built  up  by  Henry  II 
and  carried  on  by  the  justiciars  under  Richard,  with  its  heavy 
taxation,  its  severe  justice,  its  laborious  services,  its  universal 
obedience  to  royal  officials,  was  hard  for  the  people  to  bear  even 
under  strong  and  enlightened  rulers  and  ministers  or  when  par- 
tially rewarded  by  the  glory  won  by  a  hero  like  Richard.  When 
it  was  carried  on  under  John  it  was  not  likely  to  be  endured. 
He  even  increased  the  pressure  of  government  by  making  the 
taxes  and  scutages  heavier  and  collecting  them  more  frequently. 
He  summoned  the  barons  to  fulfill  their  military  services  and 
then  did  not  lead  them  to  war  but  kept  them  waiting  till  they 
paid  to  go  home.  He  brought  foreign  mercenaries  into  England 
to  overpower  any  resistance  to  his  actions.  He  compelled  the 
barons  to  put  their  sons  into  his  hands  as  pledges  for  their  own 
good  behavior.  During  the  interdict  he  used  the  courts  and 
the  Exchequer  to  plunder  the  clergy.  Since  in  addition  to  these 
oppressions  the  king  was  personally  hateful  to  so  many,  a  rebellion 
against  him  was  altogether  natural. 

In  1213,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  conflict  with  the  pope,  at 
a  great  council  held  by  the  justiciar  at  St.  Albans,  while  the  king 
was  absent  in  the  north  of  England,  it  was  determined  by  those 
who  were  present  to  demand  from  the  king  a  return  to  the  old 
laws  of  the  country.  At  another  council  a  few  months  later,  held 


180  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

at  St.  Paul's  cathedral,  London,  the  archbishop  showed  to  the 
assembled  barons  and  bishops  the  old  coronation  charter  which 
Henry  I  had  granted.  The  justiciar  laid  the  demands  for  good 
government  which  the  barons  based  on  this  charter  before  the 
king,  but  without  result.  Soon  afterwards  a  conspiracy  to  rebel 
was  formed  among  a  number  of  the  barons  gathered  at  the  abbey 
of  St.  Edmunds  on  pretense  of  making  a  pilgrimage.  They 
agreed  to  take  up  arms  and  make  war  on  the  king  unless  he 
would  grant  their  requests.  A  series  of  more  strenuous  demands 
for  better  government  was  then  laid  before  the  king  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  barons  headed  by  Stephen  Langton,  the  new  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury. 

For  the  first  time  in  English  history  a  united  demand  by  the 
great  majority  of  the  prominent  men  of  the  country  was  made 
upon  the  king.  John  refused  it.  Then  the  barons  gathered 
their  forces,  united  at  Stamford  in  the  north,  marched  through 
the  midlands,  gathering  adherents  from  among  the  nobility,  and 
finally  proceeded  to  London,  where  the  citizens  opened  the  gates 
of  the  city  to  them.  The  king  had  no  party  in  his  favor  except  a 
few  personal  retainers.  All  deserted  him  except  these  and  some 
government  officials  whose  hearts  were  with  the  rebels,  but  who 
wished  to  prevent  civil  war  if  possible. 

153.  The  Great  Charter.  —  On  the  news  that  London  had  taken 
the  part  of  the  rebels,  John  gave  way,  as  he  had  before  given  way 
to  the  pope,  and  agreed  to  accept  the  demands  of  the  barons.  He 
met  them  at  Runnymede,  a  meadow  along  the  Thames  near  Wind- 
sor Castle,  a  few  miles  west  of  London,  June  15,  1215.  There  he 
granted  the  list  of  demands  that  the  bishops,  the  barons,  and  the 
townsmen  had  drawn  up.  These  were  based  on  the  coronation 
charter  of  Henry  I,  though  extended  to  include  sixty-three  articles, 
including  many  matters  that  had  come  up  since  the  time  of  Henry  I. 
This  document  from  its  great  length  came  soon  to  be  known  as 
Magna  Carta,  or  the  Great  Charter.  Later  ages  have  based  its 
greatness  on  other  qualities  than  its  mere  size.  The  Great  Charter 


FOUNDATIONS   OF   NATIONAL   UNITY  l8l 

has  always  since  been  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most  notable 
documents  of  history.  It  has  at  least  four  claims  to  importance. 
The  way  in  which  it  was  obtained  was  significant.  It  was  not 
given  willingly  and  freely  by  a  king  who  could  choose  whether  to 
grant  it  or  not,  and  choose  just  what  he  would  grant.  It  was 
forced  from  the  king  by  the  people,  or  by  the  most  influential 
classes  of  the  people,  acting  unitedly.  It  showed  that  if  a  king 
did  not  rule  as  the  people  wished,  he  could  be  made  to. 

Secondly,  it  was  important  because  it  saved  certain  feudal  prin- 
ciples of  government  from  being  superseded  by  the  principle  of 
absolute  monarchy.  Feudalism  included  the  idea  of  an  agree- 
ment between  the  king  and  his  vassals  that  he  would  give  them 
good  government  if  they  gave  him  good  service.  It  was  a  contract 
which  the  king  had  no  right  to  break.  There  were  two  parties 
to  the  bargain  of  government.  On  the  other  hand,  the  principle 
of  the  absolute  government  which  Henry  II,  Richard,  and  John 
and  their  ministers  had  been  building  up  was  that  government 
was  a  matter  for  the  king  only.  The  people  must  accept  such 
government  as  the  king  chose  to  give  them.  The  feudal  theory 
of  contract  had  been  fast  disappearing.  But  it  was  now  revived. 
The  Great  Charter  was  an  acknowledgment  on  John's  part  of  the 
old  ideal  of  agreement,  and  showed  that  the  tenants  in  chief  at 
least  had  the  right  as  well  as  the  power  to  call  the  king  to  account. 

Thirdly,  what  it  contained  was  important.  It  is  true  that  when 
first  read  the  Great  Charter  is  almost  sure  to  be  a  disappointment. 
There  are  no  new  arrangements  about  government,  nothing  but  a 
return  to  old  customs,  for  it  is  not,  like  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  for  instance,  a  complete  system  of  government. 
Many  of  its  provisions  are  also  insignificant  and  temporary.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  contained  a  definite  agreement  to  refrain  from 
certain  illegal  actions.  Whatever  the  king  granted  in  the  Charter 
to  his  tenants  in  chief,  they  were  required  to  observe  toward  the 
men  below  them,  and  its  benefits  were  therefore  spread  widely 
through  the  nation.  The  king  promised  also  many  things  of  a 


182  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

more  general  and  far-reaching  character;  as,  for  instance,  the 
famous  clauses,  "  No  free  man  shall  be  seized  or  imprisoned  or 
dispossessed  or  outlawed  or  banished  or  in  any  way  injured,  nor 
will  we  attack  him  nor  send  against  him,  except  by  the  legal  judg- 
ment of  his  peers  or  by  the  law  of  the  land  "  ;  "  To  no  one  will  we 
sell,  to  no  one  will  we  deny  or  delay  right  or  justice."  Some  of 
these  general  principles  have  come  down  as  a  part  of  the  general 
stock  of  English  liberties,  embodied  in  many  later  documents  and 
included  among  the  early  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Although  there  is  practically  nothing  about  trial  by 
jury  or  representation  of  the  people  or  about  many  other  valued 
elements  in  later  English  liberty,  yet  the  tyranny  of  the  king  was 
effectually  restricted  by  the  provisions  of  the  Great  Charter  so 
that  these  new  rights  had  a  chance  to  grow  up.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  growth  of  the  liberties  of  the  people  began  with  the 
adoption  of  the  Great  Charter. 

Lastly,  the  Charter  was  of  great  importance  for  the  service  it 
fulfilled  in  later  times  as  a  definite  statement  of  rights  to  which 
to  refer.  John  declared,  a  few  months  after  he  had  granted  the 
Charter,  that  he  did  not  intend  to  keep  it,  and  he  induced  the 
pope  to  declare  that  it  was  void  because  the  king  had  accepted  it 
under  compulsion.  Nevertheless  John's  son  and  later  successors 
swore  time  and  time  again  to  observe  it.  It  was  a  great  thing  to 
have  such  a  large  body  of  the  customs  and  laws  of  the  country 
and  such  clear  promises  of  good  government  set  down  in  black 
and  white,  familiar  to  everybody  and  known  to  have  been  accepted 
by  former  kings.  In  earlier  times  when  the  people  appealed  to 
the  king  for  good  government  they  asked  for  "  the  laws  of  King 
Edward"  or  "the  laws  of  Henry  I "  ;  but  these  were  vague  expres- 
sions without  very  definite  meaning.  Now  a  king  who  violated 
the  old  laws  or  showed  himself  tyrannical  was  asked  to  confirm 
the  Great  Charter  and  to  abide  by  its  provisions.  In  other 
countries  as  well  as  in  England  the  Great  Charter  exerted  an 
influence  and  was  appealed  to  as  a  standard  of  the  rights  of  the 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   NATIONAL  UNITY  183 

people  against  the  kings.  It  was  the  earliest  mediaeval  document 
defining  or  making  any  great  restriction  on  royal  rights.1 

154.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1154  to  1216. — The  most 
characteristic  and  important  occurrences  of  this  period  were  those 
which  prepared  the  way  for  the  growth  of  a  united  English  nation. 
These  were  largely  the  personal  work  of  Henry  II.  At  this  time 
and  for  centuries  afterwards  it  will  be  found  that  the  personal 
character  of  the  king  is  the  most  important  single  fact  in  the  his- 
tory of  each  successive  period.  The  power  and  influence  which 
he  possessed  and  exercised  were  so  great  that  his  ability  or  incom- 
petency,  activity  or  indolence,  prudence  or  heedlessness,  made 
vastly  more  difference  than  in  a  modern  monarchy.  If  he  could 
not  exercise  much  influence  over  the  way  the  people  made  their 
living,  he  could  give  peace  and  order  or  else  permit  anarchy ;  if 
he  could  not  change  their  national  character,  he  could  throw 
the  weight  of  government  in  favor  of  some  national  tendencies 
and  against  others ;  although  he  could  not  control  the  personal 
character  of  his  subjects,  he  could  introduce  new  laws  and  dis- 
seminate through  his  officials  his  own  enlightened  ideas.  The 
personality  of  the  king  is  therefore  of  interest  not  so  much  for 
its  own  sake  as  for  the  permanent  influence  it  exerted. 

Henry  II  even  more  than  most  kings  left  this  personal  impress 
on  his  own  and  future  times.  The  legal  and  judicial  institutions 
which  he  introduced  and  the  consistent  pressure  of  the  central 
government  which  he  enforced  did  much  to  weld  the  English 
people  into  one  body  politic.  The  foundations  at  least  of 
national  unity  were  laid  in  his  time. 

The  work  of  organization  had  been  so  well  done  in  the  time 
of  Henry  that  the  government  remained  strong  even  in  the  slacker 
hands  of  his  two  sons.  The  reign  of  Richard  I,  from  1189  to 

1  The  Great  Charter  is  translated  from  the  Latin  and  published  in 
Translatio)is  and  Reprints,  Vol.  I,  No.  6;  in  the  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  6; 
in  Adams  and  Stephens's  Constitutional  Documents,  pp.  42-52 ;  Lee's  Source 
Rook,  No.  80 ;  and  in  numerous  other  places. 


184  A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

1199,  is  famous  rather  for  the  knightly  exploits  of  the  absentee 
king  and  for  the  reflected  glory  which  England  obtained  from  them 
than  for  anything  of  importance  in  its  internal  history.  The  reign 
of  John,  from  1199  to  1216,  is  preeminently  the  period  of  the 
Great  Charter.  The  date  of  the  Great  Charter,  1215,  will  always 
remain  one  of  the  most  important  in  English  history,  not  because 
it  weakened  the  central  government  but  because  it  took  the  first 
steps  towards  putting  it  under  the  control  of  the  people. 

The  effort  of  Henry  II  to  bind  together  his  scattered  European 
dominions,  with  no  bond  of  union  except  his  own  personality  and 
power,  was  as  great  a  failure  as  his  English  policy  was  a  success. 
It  had  no  results  beyond  his  own  lifetime.  At  his  death  in  1189 
there  was  no  more  union  among  the  various  states  of  which  he 
was  ruler  than  at  his  succession,  and  although  during  the  time  of 
Richard  they  were  held  together,  in  1204,  in  the  reign  of  John, 
Normandy,  Maine,  Anjou,  and  Touraine  were  lost  altogether  to 
the  English  crown. 

The  effort  to  bring  all  the  British  Isles  under  one  government 
was  scarcely  more  successful.  The  submission  of  the  Irish  chief- 
tains to  Henry  in  1171,  the  homage  paid  to  him  by  the  king  of 
the  Scots  in  1175,  and  the  assertion  of  English  lordship  over 
Wales  were  the  bases  of  many  later  claims,  but  they  did  not  really 
unite  those  countries  with  England.  The  literary  activity  also  was 
but  a  temporary  reflection  from  the  vigor  of  Henry's  rule.  The 
jury  system,  the  assizes,  the  common  law,  the  overmastering  cen- 
tral government  remained,  therefore,  the  permanent  work  of  the 
time. 


General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  A.  S.,  Henry  II  (Twelve  English  States- 
men); STUBBS,  The  Early  Plantagenets  (Epochs  of  History);  and  HALL, 
HUBERT,  Court  Life  under  the  Plantagenets,  are  especially  valuable  and 
interesting.  GREEN,  Short  History  of  England,  chap,  ii,  sects.  7  and  8,  chap, 
iii,  sects.  1-3.  RAMSAY,  The  Angevin  Empire,  is  a  continuation  of  his 
Foundations  of  English  History,  and  is,  like  it,  accurate,  full,  and  scholarly. 
NORGATE,  England  ttnder  the  Angevin  Kings  &&&John  Lackland.  Church 


FOUNDATIONS   OF    NATIONAL  UNITY  185 

affairs,  which  fill  so  much  of  this  period,  are  described  in  great  fullness  in 
STEPHENS,  History  of  the  English  Church,  1066-1272,  and  satisfactorily  but 
less  fully  in  WAKEMAN,  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  pp.  107-131. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  principal  chroniclers  for  this  period 
whose  works  are  accessible  in  English  are  ROGER  OF  Ho v EDEN  and  ROGER 
WENDOVER,  Flowers  of  History  (Bohn's  Library).  A  number  of  extracts 
from  these  authors  are  given  in  LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  64-79.  Lee  has  a 
number  of  additional  documents  illustrating  the  contest  between  Henry  II 
and  Becket,  and  between  John  and  the  pope,  Nos.  58,  59,  61,  66-79.  COLBY, 
Sources,  Nos.  22-30,  covers  a  somewhat  wider  range  of  subjects.  In  both 
of  these  collections  as  well  as  in  Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  I,  No.  6, 
the  principal  assizes  of  Henry  II,  and  the  Great  Charter  are  given.  ADAMS 
and  STEPHENS,  Documents  Illustrative  of  English  Constitutional  History, 
includes  these  and  a  larger  body  of  such  documents  than  any  other  collec- 
tion. ARCHER,  Crusade  of  Richard  I  (English  History  by  Contemporary 
Writers),  is  of  much  interest. 

Poetry  and  Fiction. —  SCOTT,  Ivanhoe  and  The  Talisman.  TENNYSON, 
Becket.  SHAKESPEARE,  King  John  :  the  historical  character  of  this  play  is 
not  so  good  as  that  of  those  which  describe  later  periods,  but  it  represents 
especially  strongly  the  patriotic  spirit  of  Shakespeare's  own  time.  The 
Robin  Hood  Ballads  properly  belong  to  this  period.  A  number  of  these  and 
other  early  ballads  are  in  GAYLEY  and  FLAHERTY,  Poetry  of  the  People,  and 
in  ALLINGHAM,  The  Ballad  Book.  YONGE,  The  Constable  of  the  Tower. 
BULFINCH,  The  Age  of  Romance,  contains  many  of  the  stories  borrowed  from 
GEOFFREY  OF  MONMOUTH. 

SpecialTopics.  —  (i)  Personal  Character  of  Henry  II,  Mrs.  GREEN, 
Henry  II,  pp.  1-20;  (2)  the  Mabinogion,  BULFINCH,  Age  of  Romance ; 
(3)  the  Conference  at  Runnymede,  "Roger  of  Wendover,"  year  1215,  in 
LEE,  Nos.  77-79,  and  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  iii,  sect.  3;  (4)  Leprosy 
in  England,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  I,  pp.  367-371 ;  (5)  Trial  by  Jury, 
ibid.,  pp.  285-295;  (6)  Richard  in  the  Holy  Land,  ARCHER,  The  Crtisade 
of  Richard  I,  pp.  132-175;  (7)  Henry  II  and  the  Clergy,  MAITLAND,  Canon 
Law  in  England,  pp.  132-147, 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE  FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION 
1216-1337 

155.  Accession  of  Henry  III. — The  period  that  followed  the 
grant  of  the  Great  Charter  was  a  confused  and  disorderly  one. 
The  union  of  the  barons  against  the  king  lasted  only  long  enough 
to  secure  his  submission  and  then  it  gave  way  to  divisions  among 
them.  This  enabled  John  not  only  to  revoke  the  charter  he  had 
just  granted  but  to  collect  troops,  to  gain  adherents,  and  to  make 
war  on  his  principal  opponents.  They  in  turn  united  their  forces 
again  and  offered  the  throne  of  England  to  Louis,  eldest  son  of 
the  king  of  France.  He  accepted  the  invitation  and  sent  over  an 
army  to  help  the  barons.  In  the  midst  of  this  struggle,  less  than 
a  year  after  the  grant  of  the  Charter,  John  died,  and  his  son 
Henry,  a  boy  of  nine  years  of  age,  was  proclaimed  king  under 
the  guidance  of  the  loyal  party  of  the  barons.  The  Great  Char- 
ter, with  some  changes,  was  regranted  by  his  guardians  in  his 
name,  and  soon  Louis  of  France  returned  home,  all  contending 
parties  having  acknowledged  Henry  as  king. 

Henry  III  had  one  of  the  longest  reigns  in  English  history,  cov- 
ering fifty- six  years,  from  1216  to  1272.  In  character  and  tem- 
perament he  was  weaker  than  his  predecessors.  The  kings  since 
the  Norman  Conquest  had  been  men  of  more  than  average  ability. 
They  were  all  of  vigorous  nature  even  when  this  character  was 
accompanied  with  great  vices.  Henry  III  lived  a  better  life  as 
a  private  man  and  was  more  refined  and  kindly  than  any  of  the 
preceding  kings  ;  but  he  had  no  military  ambition  or  capacity,  no 
independence  of  judgment,  no  clear  policy.  He  was,  moreover, 

186 


FORMATION   OF  A  UNITED   ENGLISH   NATION     187 

weak,  frivolous,  unwise,  and  false  to  his  promises.  His  influence 
over  events  during  his  long  reign  was  therefore  very  slight. 

156.  Architecture.  —  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  changes  which 
were  in  progress  in  England  in  the  thirteenth  century  were  of  a 
kind  in  which  the  part  even  of  the  most  vigorous  and  ambitious  of 
kings  could  be  but  small.  In  architecture,  which  usually  reflects 
national  life  very  clearly,  this  was  the  period  of  the  introduction 
of  the  first  truly  national  style  of  English  building,  that  which  is 
called  Early  English.  In  building  churches  and  other  sacred 
structures,  instead  of  the  heavy  piers,  thick  pillars,  low  round 
arches,  and  general  impression  of  strength,  solidity,  and  sternness 
which  had  belonged  to  the  Norman  period,  the  English  architects 
through  the  reign  of  Richard  and  John  developed  a  very  different 
style  of  building  and  ornament.1  In  this  form  of  architecture  the 
pillars  are  made  up  of  groups  of  light,  airy  shafts ;  the  arches  are 
tall  and  pointed  ;  while  vaulted  stone  roofs  take  the  place  of  those 
built  flat  and  of  timber.  Crockets,  a  sort  of  half-unrolled  leaf 
form,  were  used  along  the  arches,  and  other  flower  and  leaf  forms 
took  the  place  of  the  lozenges  and  zigzags  of  the  earlier  sculptors. 
The  whole  character  of  the  buildings  and  their  ornamentation  was 
tall,  graceful,  slender,  and  elegant. 

Nevertheless  the  skill  of  the  builders  was  such  that  there  had 
been  no  real  loss  of  strength  with  this  increase  of  lightness  of 
appearance.  The  Early  English  buildings  were  even  more  strong 
and  permanent  than  the  Norman.  Salisbury  Cathedral  was  built 
in  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  between  1220  and  1258, 
and  is  an  example  throughout  of  this  Early  English  style.  The 
king  pulled  down  almost  the  whole  of  the  earlier  Westminster 
Abbey  church,  and  built  it  anew  on  a  larger  scale.  In  this  re- 
construction, however,  as  in  everything  else  which  Henry  d'id,  he 
submitted  himself  to  French  influence,  and  the  proportions  of  the 
Abbey  are  therefore  hardly  characteristic  of  the  English  church 

1  Compare  the  figure  of  Salisbury  Cathedral  shown  on  the  next  page 
with  that  of  the  interior  of  Hereford  Cathedral  shown  on  page  142. 


i88 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


building  of  the  time,  though  the  building  is  so  in  other  respects. 
The  beautiful  chapter  house  at  Westminster  became  the  model 
for  many  such  structures  throughout  England. 

In  the  building  of  castles  there  were  no  such  great  changes. 
The  keeps  were  now  sometimes  built  round  instead  of  square, 
and  were  surrounded  by  more  extensive  walls,  but  the  great  ad- 
vance in  castle  building  that  was  to  mark 
the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  and 
to  give  rise  to  such  fortresses  as  Conway 
or  Carnarvon,  whose  ruins  are  now  so 
impressive,  had  not  yet  come. 

157.  The  Uni- 
versities. —  The 
life  of  this  period 
did  not  run  so 
largely  in  military 
as  in  more  peace- 
ful lines.  A  proof 
of  this  is  to  be 
found  in  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  uni- 
versities of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge. 
During  the  earlier 
middle  ages 
instruction  was 
given  to  pupils  at  most  of  the  cathedrals  and  larger  monasteries. 
Education  was  in  the  main  a  survival  from  the  teaching  of  the 
schools  of  the  later  Roman  Empire,  and  had  been  reintroduced 
into  England  from  the  continent  along  with  Christianity  dur- 
ing the  Saxon  period.  It  was  altogether  in  the  hands  of  the 
clergy,  and  was  intended  principally  for  the  training  of  clergymen. 
Pupils  were  taught,  besides  reading  and  writing,  three  primary  sub- 
jects of  study  :  grammar,  the  use  of  words ;  rhetoric,  the  forms  of 


Salisbury  Cathedral  (an  example  of  the  Early 
English  style  of  architecture) 


FORMATION   OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH   NATION     189 

writing  and  speech ;  and  logic,  the  forms  of  reasoning.  These 
three  subjects  were  called  the  trivium.  Four  more  advanced  sub- 
jects made  up  the  quadrivium,  that  is  to  say,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
astronomy,  and  the  science  of  music.  These  were  known  as  the 
seven  liberal  arts,  and  lay  at  the  basis  of  further  studies  in  phi- 
losophy, divinity,  law,  and  medicine.  Teachers  became  famous 
at  certain  cathedral  or  monastic  schools,  and  large  numbers  of 
pupils  gathered  around  them.  In  certain  places  also,  quite  inde- 
pendent of  cathedral  or  monastery,  teachers  gave  instruction, 
made  reputations,  and  attracted  students. 

In  this  way  the  beginnings  of  the  great  universities  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  seem  to  have  been  made.  As  early  as  1150  there 
were  many  teachers  and  students  at  Oxford.  These  teachers  or 
masters  adopted  some  sort  of  organization  among  themselves, 
and  it  was  to  this  group  of  masters  that  the  word  universitas  or 
"  university  "  1  was  applied.  In  King  John's  time  a  special  offi- 
cial, the  chancellor,  was  appointed  to  exercise  authority  over 
the  masters  and  scholars  at  Oxford  in  the  name  of  the  bishop 
of  Lincoln,  in  whose  diocese  the  city  lay.  At  about  the  same 
time  a  similar  body  of  masters  and  scholars  was  springing  up  at 
Cambridge.  From  these  beginnings  the  organization  gradually 
developed,  statutes  came  to  be  regularly  adopted  and  recorded, 
officers  elected,  rules  enforced,  and  the  university  assumed  defi- 
nite form. 

Trfe  next  step  was  the  foundation,  of  separate  colleges  in  the 
universities.  In  1274  Walter  of  Merton,  bishop  of  Rochester  and 
chancellor  of  the  kingdom,  gave  certain  estates  as  an  endowment 
for  the  support  of  a  warden  and  several  scholars  or  fellows.  He 
laid  down  a  set  of  rules,  according  to  which  they  were  to  devote 
themselves  to  study  and  to  live  together  like  a  body  of  monks  in  a 

1  At  first  the  word  universitas  meant  any  kind  of  an  organized  body  or 
group  of  persons,  and  was  applied  frequently  to  the  merchants  of  a  town  or 
to  the  clergy  of  a  cathedral.  It  was,  however,  gradually  restricted  in  meaning 
to  a  body  of  persons  organized  for  purposes  of  higher  study  and  teaching. 


A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 


certain  group  of  buildings  which  was  erected  for  them  at  Oxford. 
In  these  buildings  other  students  were  also  to  be  educated,  and 
some  were  to  be  supported  from  the  endowment.  This  was  the 
first  separate  college  within  the  university.  Soon  others  were 
established.  Merton  served  as  the  model  on  which  Oriel  and 
other  new  colleges  at  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  planned. 
At  Oxford  three  were  founded  before  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  nine  during  the  fourteenth.  Nevertheless  the  great 
majority  of  students  continued  to  live  not  in  colleges  but  in  halls 
or  inns  managed  by  independent  masters,  or  simply  in  lodgings. 
Taken  as  a  body  the  students  at  the  universities  made  up  a  tur- 
bulent mass  of  several  thousand  men  and  boys  of  all  ages,  with 
very  little  discipline  or  order.  They  were  claimed  by  the  church  as 
belonging  to  the  clergy  and  therefore  only  amenable  to  the  eccle- 
siastical courts.  For  all  matters  except  the  most  serious  they 
were  nominally  under  the  authority  of  the  chancellor  of  the  uni- 
versity and  the  congregation  of  masters  or  graduates.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  they  were  but  little  submissive  to  any  authority.  The 
universal  use  of  Latin  by  scholars  both  for  speaking  and  writing 
made  it  easy  and  common  for  students  to  go  from  one  country 
to  another  to  study,  and  the  absence  of  any  fixed  period  for 
graduation  left  the  student  to  wander  at  will  over  Europe,  seek- 
ing a  teacher  or  teachers  whose  reputation  might  attract  him. 

158.  Learned  Men.  —  There  was  no  lack  of  famous  scholars. 
Gathered  around  the  universities  and  in  the  position  of  bishops 
or  other  church  officials  were  at  this  time  a  large  number  of 
unusually  learned  men.  The  thirteenth  century  was  a  century  of 
great  men  in  England,  as  it  was  in  other  countries.  At  no  time 
previously,  during  the  middle  ages,  and  scarcely  since,  have  men 
thought  in  many  fields  more  deeply  or  reasoned  more  closely. 
Indeed,  many  of  the  men  who  made  the  continental  universities 
famous  came  from  England.  Roger  Bacon  and  a  number  of  other 
learned  Englishmen  made  a  group  of  Oxford  trained  men,  all  of 
whom  afterwards  became  famous  as  lecturers  at  Paris,  Bologna, 


FORMATION   OF   A  UNITED   ENGLISH   NATION     191 

or  other  European  universities.  One  of  the  greatest  of  them,  how- 
ever, Robert  Grosseteste,  as  head  of  one  of  the  schools  at  Oxford, 
as  bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  as  adviser  of  the  great  men  of  the 
kingdom,  lived  the  whole  of  a  long  life  and  exercised  great  influ- 
ence in  England  itself. 

159.  Law  Writers. — All  the  learned  men  of  the  time  were  not, 
like  those  who  have  just  been  mentioned,  students  of  philoso- 
phy or  theology,  connected  with  the  universities,  or  even  princi- 
pally occupied  in  the  church.     For  instance,  the  greatest  of  the 
i      early  English  law  writers,  Henry  de  Bracton,  wrote  during 


Quadrangle  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford 


the  reign  of  Henry  III.  He  acted  for  many  years  as  one  of  the 
king's  justices,  collected  a  vast  number  of  decisions  given  by  the 
great  royal  judges  of  the  time  of  Henry  II,  and  made  notes  of  his 
own  important  and  typical  cases.  He  then  used  these  as  authori- 
ties for  his  conclusions  as  to  what  the  common  law  of  England 
really  was.  At  the  same  time  he  had  studied  Roman  law  and  the 
discussions  of  its  principles  by  the  law  lecturers  and  writers  of  the 
University  of  Bologna,  so  that  he  was  familiar  with  the  forms  into 
which  that  body  of  law  had  been  thrown.  With  this  preparation 
he  wrote  a  long  work,  borrowing  some  general  principles  as  well 
as  its  form  from  foreign  treatises,  but  making  it  a  systematic 


192  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

statement  of  the  English  common  law  as  it  was  then  and  as  in 
the  main  it  has  remained  since.  Still  other  works  were  written 
at  about  the  same  time,  describing  the  procedure  and  customs 
of  the  lower  courts. 

160.  The  Historians. — The  thirteenth  century  also  saw  abler 
chroniclers  than  any  that  had  preceded  them.  The  new  group 
of  historical  writers  who  had  sprung  up  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II 
was  continued  by  men  who  knew  better  how  to  classify  the  events 
they  recorded,  and  to  tell  the  causes  and  effects  of  actions  as 
well  as  the  occurrences  themselves.  The  best  of  these  were  the 
successive  annalists  who  lived  and  wrote  at  the  monastery  of 
St.  Albans,  a  Benedictine  abbey  situated  about  twenty  miles  from 
London.  This  abbey  had  been  founded  before  the  time  of  Alfred, 
and  had  become  larger  and  richer  since  the  Norman  Conquest. 
It  was  on  the  old  Roman  road  running  northward  from  London, 
which  was  still  the  main  line  of  travel  between  the  south  and  the 
north,  and  was  therefore  well  situated  for  news  of  what  was  going 
on  in  the  world.  Here  a  record  of  current  events  was  kept,  as 
in  so  many  other  monasteries,  and  some  industrious  or  ambitious 
chronicler  prefixed  to  it  an  account  of  earlier  history  from  the 
creation  of  the  world,  drawn  from  some  other  sources.  During 
the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth  century  Roger  of  Wendover  became 
the  historiographer  of  the  abbey,  rewrote  the  earlier  chronicle, 
added  to  it  the  events  of  his  own  time,  and  called  his  work  the 
Flowers  of  Histories. 

His  successor,  Matthew  Paris,  was  the  best  of  mediaeval  writers 
of  history.  He  used  the  writings  of  his  predecessors  at  St.  Albans 
for  earlier  periods,  but  wrote  the  history  of  his  own  time — the 
twenty-five  middle  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III  and  of  the 
thirteenth  century — independently.  His  work  was  of  course  in 
Latin.  That  part  of  it  which  was  written  by  himself  was  about 
three  times  the  length  of  this  text-book.  He  was  personally 
acquainted  with  King  Henry,  Bishop  Robert  Grosseteste,  and 
many  of  the  other  leading  men  of  the  time,  and  evidently  knew 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION      193 

a  great  deal  of  what  was  going  on  in  France,  Germany,  and  Italy. 
His  style  is  bright,  and  he  is  full  of  keen  observations  about  the 
things  of  which  he  wrote. 

161.  The  Scriptorium  of  a  Monastery. — The  historiographer 
of  a  large  monastery  was  provided  with  a  special  room,  known  as 
the  scriptorium,  where  he  and  his  assistants  worked.  This  room 
was  provided  with  desks  or  tables,  and  an  official  in  charge  kept 


$  1  X"'*r~>  ~        '  =•;«_. c  jf     **'\?**  V*'    >-    /     iS- 


Remains  of  the  Scriptorium  of  Fountains  Abbey 

parchment,  ink,  and  pens  for  a  group  of  monks  or  other  clerks 
who  were  busied  with  much  copying  or  writing.  The  keeping  of 
the  official  chronicle  was  only  a  small  part  of  the  work  done. 
Charters  and  letters  were  written  or  transcribed,  service  books 
for  the  chapel,  portions  of  the  Bible  and  other  religious  books 
were  copied,  and  transcripts  of  the  classics  and  of  other  famous 
writings  were  prepared,  to  be  used  as  presents  for  great  men  or  to 
be  placed  in  the  monastery  library. 


194  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

In  those  times,  before  printing  was  invented,  the  multiplying  of 
books  required  many  hands,  and  skill  in  clear,  ornamental  hand- 
writing brought  a  high  reputation.  Some  of  the  writers  in  the 
scriptorium,  therefore,  copied  the  main  body  of  the  manuscript, 
while  the  initial  letters  and  other  ornamentation  was  left  for 
persons  skilled  in  drawing  and  in  the  use  of  gilt  and  colors. 
Matthew  Paris  had  a  reputation  for  illustration  and  handwriting 
as  well  as  for  his  historical  work.1 

162.  The  Friars.  —  The  monasteries,  which  were  in  this  way 
literary  centers,  were  either  old  Benedictine  abbeys,  or  Cluniac, 
Carthusian,  and  Cistercian  reformed  monasteries  founded  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  III  a 
new  group  of  religious  orders  arose,  and  members  of  them  soon 
made  their  way  into  England.  These  were  the  Dominican, 
Franciscan,  and  other  friars.2  The  first  two  were  founded  by 
St.  Dominic,  a  Spaniard,  and  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  an  Italian,  just 
at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  They  differed  radi- 
cally in  their  objects  and  in  their  methods  of  life  from  the  older 
monastic  bodies.  Their  main  duty  was  missionary  work.  Their 
vows  required  them  to  visit  and  help  the  poor  and  to  teach  and 
preach  to  those  who  needed  intellectual  and  spiritual  rather  than 
material  help.  They  were  not  to  live  retired  from  the  world  in 
monasteries,  nor  to  draw  their  support  from  endowments  of  land, 
like  the  older  orders,  but  were  to  establish  their  houses  in  populous 
towns,  and  laboring  there  or  traveling  from  one  town  to  another, 
depend  on  the  free  gifts  of  the  people  for  their  support  from 
day  to  day.  They  were  therefore  called  "  mendicants,"  or  "beg- 
ging friars."  The  Dominicans  were  also  called  the  "  preaching 
friars,"  or,  from  the  color  of  their  gowns,  the  "  black  friars."  The 
Franciscans  were  known  as  the  "  friars  minor"  from  the  humility 
they  professed,  or  the  "gray  friars"  from  their  gray  robes. 

1  See  on  p.  165  an  example  from  a  manuscript  still  existing. 

2  So  called  from  the  French  word/rtres,  or  Latin  fratres,  brothers,  which 
was  what  the  members  of  these  orders  called  themselves. 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION      195 

Another  similar  order,  the  Carmelites,  were  known  as  the  "  white 
friars,"  and  still  another  body  as  the  "Austin"  or  "Augustinian 
friars  "  because  they  followed  the  rule  of  St.  Augustine. 

The  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  established  their  first  homes  in 
England  at  Oxford,  just  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 
There  they  were  drawn,  both  by  their  location  and  by  the  objects 
of  the  foundation  of  their  orders,  into  higher  teaching,  as  well  as 
into  popular  instruction,  preaching,  and  charitable  work  among  the 
poor.  Their  Oxford  and  later  their  Cambridge  houses  were  prac- 
tically equivalent  to  colleges  in  those  universities,  and  many  of  the 
most  famous  teachers  and  learned  men  of  the  time,  including 
several  of  those  already  named,  and  more  than  one  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  were  members  of  one  or  other  of  the  orders  of  friars. 
They  paid  especial  attention  to  medicine  and  physical  science, 
as  the  training  of  their  own  younger  members  was  intended  to  fit 
them  especially  for  practical  usefulness  in  mission  work. 

Prominent  as  the  friars  were  in  the  educational  and  learned 
world,  they  were  most  active  as  popular  preachers,  wandering 
from  place  to  place,  speaking  in  the  language  of  the  common 
people,  and  telling  pathetic,  humorous,  or  marvelous  stories  to 
enforce  their  teaching.  They  worked  often  amidst  still  more 
obscure  surroundings,  in  the  crowded  towns,  like  the  Salvation 
Army  of  modern  times. 

163.  The  Towns.  — The  need  for  the  philanthropic  work  of  the 
friars  is  only  one  of  several  indications  that  town  life  was  coming 
to  be  more  customary  among  the  English  people  than  it  had  been 
in  earlier  times.  At  no  time  since  Britain  had  been  a  province  of 
the  Roman  Empire  had  any  considerable  part  of  the  pe6ple  lived 
in  cities  or  boroughs.1  Only  quite  late  in  Saxon  times,  and  prin- 
cipally where  there  were  many  Danish  traders,  did  people  feel 
attracted  to  town  life.  The  Norman  Conquest  seemed  at  first 

1  A  town  which  was  the  seat  of  a  bishop,  that  is,  where  a  cathedral 
was  situated,  was  called  a  city;  any  other  considerable  town  in  England 
was  called  a  borough. 


196  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

unfavorable  to  the  size  and  prosperity  of  towns,  for  right  in  the 
midst  of  many  of  them  the  Conqueror  had  hundreds  of  houses 
torn  down  in  order  to  put  up  the  stone  castle  in  which  he  wished 
to  place  soldiers  to  keep  the  people  of  the  remainder  of  the  town 
and  the  surrounding  country  from  rebellion.  There  are  only  too 
many  such  entries  as  the  following  in  Domesday  Book,  which 
describes  Oxford  in  1085  :  "  In  this  town  there  are  four  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  houses  so  wasted  and  destroyed  that  they  cannot 
pay  any  tax."  However,  houses  of  the  Norman  time  were  easily 
replaced,  being  only  slight  affairs,  built  with  a  light  framework 
plastered  over  on  the  outside.  We  find  one  townsman  complain- 
ing that  the  constable  of  the  castle  has  taken  his  house  and  moved 
it  into  the  castle  yar^I ;  and  an  old  law  says  that  if  any  one  has 
harbored  heretics  in  his  house,  it  is  to  be  carried  outside  the  town 
and  burned.  The  timber-built  houses  came  later,  and  stone  houses 
later  still. 

The  security  from  foreign  invasion  and  the  comparative  good 
order  kept  by  the  Norman  and  Angevin  kings  gave  an  oppor- 
tunity for  towns  to  become  more  numerous  and  populous.  Many 
foreigners  of  greater  skill  in  trade  and  handicrafts  than  the  English 
came  to  dwell  in  the  towns  and  to  increase  their  wealth  and  enter- 
prise. Their  growth  was  of  course  mainly  dependent  on  this  exten- 
sion of  trade  and  handicraft.  The  townspeople  still  had  their  cattle 
and  small  bits  of  cultivated  land  beyond  the  built-up  streets,  but 
their  principal  occupation  was  either  buying  and  selling,  or  making 
articles  for  sale.  Those  places  which  were  situated  on  some  good 
harbor  on  the  coast  or  on  some  navigable  river  within  easy  reach 
of  the  sea  came  to  have  trade  with  the  merchants  of  the  continent. 
Towns  grew  up  likewise  at  well-known  fords  over  rivers,  at  favor- 
able locations  on  the  old  Roman  roads,  or  where  some  monastery 
rich  in  sacred  relics  brought  crowds  of  pilgrims  together  and  thus 
made  a  market  for  goods.  The  greater  activity  of  life,  the  increase 
of  wealth,  and  the  more  frequent  intercourse  among  men  passing 
from  one  place  to  another  for  purposes  of  trade,  all  favored  the 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH   NATION      197 

growth  of  the  towns  of  England  during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries. 

164.  Town  Charters.  —  Some  of  these  towns  had  always  been 
directly  under  the  king.  Others,  in  the  feudal  organization  of  the 
country,  were  growing  up  on  land  belonging  to  some  earl,  baron, 
or  church  body.  Customs  grew  up  among  the  people  of  a  town, 
which  they  valued  and  felt  to  be  necessary  to  their  prosperity. 
They  found  also  that  their  money  could  obtain  for  them  from  the 


Old  Town  Hall  of  Leicester 


king  or  their  other  lord,  whoever  he  might  be,  recognition  of  their 
customs,  and  still  other  advantages  in  the  way  of  settling  their  own 
internal  disputes  without  interference,  or  of  carrying  on  their  gov- 
ernment in  their  own  way.  The  need  of  Henry  II  for  money 
to  carry  on  his  wars  on  the  continent,  of  Richard  for  his  crusade, 
and  of  John  and  Henry  III  for  their  various  uses  led  them  to  grant 
charters  to  towns  very  readily  when  good  sums  were  offered. 
And  the  townsmen  were  now  rich  enough  to  pay  well  for  their 
privileges.  Thus  one  after  another  the  towns  obtained  charters, 
guaranteeing  to  their  citizens  the  right  to  enforce  their  local 


198  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

customs,  to  make  new  regulations,  to  pay  their  taxes  in  one  sum 
to  the  government,  collecting  them  among  themselves  as  they  saw 
fit,  and  many  other  privileges.  A  town  valued  its  charter  above 
all  things,  and  from  time  to  time  offered  and  paid  to  the  king  a 
large  sum  of  money  to  obtain  a  new  charter  with  more  extensive 
rights.  Nevertheless,  the  townsmen  always  had  to  appear  before 
the  king's  justices  when  they  came  on  circuit,  to  keep  the  assize 
of  arms  and  other  such  national  laws,  and  in  other  ways  constantly 
to  recognize  the  supremacy  of  the  royal  government. 

The  towns  were  mostly  small.  London  was  a  large  city,  but 
others,  such  as  Bristol,  Southampton,  Exeter,  Leicester,  Norwich, 
Lynn,  Lincoln,  and  York,  were  places  with  not  over  three  or  four 
thousand  inhabitants.  Surrounded  by  walls,  crowded,  and  often 
dirty,  they  were  nevertheless  busy  and  filled  with  well-to-do  traders. 

165.  The  Gild  Merchant.  — The  citizens  were  organized  for  trade 
purposes  into  what  was  called  the  gild  merchant.     This  organiza- 
tion consisted  of  all  those  who  took  part  in  trade,  and  was  usually 
authorized  by  the  town  charter.     The  gild  made  rules  to  preserve 
the  trade  of  the  town  to  its  own  citizens,  or  to  grant  it  to  strangers 
on  payment  of  fees  or  tolls,  and  it  enforced  its  trade  regulations 
by  fines  or  by  expulsion.    All  trade  and  commerce  was  in  this  way 
controlled  and  directed  by  the  gild  merchant.    It  had  its  meetings 
for  good  fellowship  also,  and  made  charitable  contributions  not 
only  to  its  own  members  who  fell  into  misfortune  but  to  others. 

166.  Craft  Gilds.  — Later  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  gild  mer- 
chant became  of  less  importance,  and  in  its  place  in  each  town  a 
number  of  organizations  came  into  existence  made  up  of  the  men 
working  in  each  particular  kind  of  industry,  such  as  weavers, 
dyers,  carpenters,  leather  workers,  etc.    Most  of  these  bodies  had 
received  the  authorization  for  their  existence  from  the  authorities 
of  their  towns,  although  some  had  secured  charters *  directly  from 

1  A  charter  was  a  formal  document  granted  by  the  king  or  in  the  king's 
name  by  the  chancellor  or  some  other  official,  giving  a  right  to  the  persons 
receiving  it  to  do  something  or  to  hold  certain  powers  and  privileges  which 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH   NATION      199 

the  king.  These  companies,  fraternities,  crafts,  or  craft  gilds,  as 
they  were  variously  called,  had  the  oversight  of  each  particular 
occupation,  and  included  all  who  worked  at  it  in  that  town. 
They  made  rules  for  work  and  prosecuted  before  the  town  author- 
ities those  who  violated  them.  Like  the  gild  merchant  they  had 
their  social  and  religious  side,  holding  meetings  and  banquets, 
going  to  church  in  procession,  attending  the  funeral  services  of 
their  deceased  members,  looking  after  their  widows  and  orphans, 
and  in  other  ways  serving  as  brotherhoods  as  well  as  trade  organi- 
zations. Probably  far  the  greater  number  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  towns  were  members  of  some  such  organization.1 

167.  Fairs. — Much  of  the  buying  and  selling  of  the  country 
was  done  not  in  the  towns  but  at  the  fairs.  The  fairs  were  gather- 
ings held  at  various  places  yearly  or  oftener.  The  right  to  hold 
a  fair  was  dependent  on  a  charter  which  had  been  granted  by  the 
king  to  an  abbey,  bishop,  baron,  or  even  a  town  government.  The 
bishop  of  Winchester,  for  instance,  had  a  charter  granted  to  him 
by  William  II,  allowing  him  to  hold  a  fair  every  year,  lasting  two 
weeks.  It  was  held  on  a  hill  not  far  from  the  town  of  Winchester. 
Booths  or  wooden  shops  were  put  up  and  rented  to  merchants, 
who  came  from  different  parts  of  England  and  from  other  countries 
to  buy  and  sell.  Tolls  were  charged  by  the  bishop  on  everything 
that  changed  hands.  While  it  was  being  held,  nothing  except 
food  could  be  bought  or  sold  in  the  city  of  Winchester  itself  or 
for  several  miles  around. 

they  could  not  have  except  by  this  grant  from  the  government.  A  baron's 
right  to  try  and  to  punish  his  tenants  ;  the  right  of  a  town  to  have  a  court  of 
its  own,  to  collect  its  own  taxes,  or  to  exclude  strangers  from  trading  in  its 
markets ;  and  the  right  of  the  carpenters,  weavers,  or  bakers  of  a  town  to 
have  a  separate  organization  and  powers,  were  only  a  few  instances  of  the 
many  forms  of  royal  charters  constantly  being  granted.  A  substantial  fee 
was  usually  paid  to  the  government  for  the  privilege  of  obtaining  a  charter, 
and  it  had  to  be  renewed  frequently  and  a  new  fee  paid. 

1  Some  charters  of  towns,  and  rules  of  merchant  and  craft  gilds,  can  be 
found  in  Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  II,  No.  i,  "Towns  and  Gilds." 


200  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  bishop's  officers  held  a  court  at  the  fair  for  the  immediate 
settlement  of  disputes  that  broke  out  among  the  merchants,  and 
for  the  punishment  of  offenses  committed  there.  This  was  called 
a  court  of  "pie-powder,"  which  was  an  English  mispronunciation 
of  the  French  words  pied poudrk,  "dusty  foot."  The  court  was 
so  called  because  of  the  promptitude  of  its  action.  Men  might 
come  to  it  just  as  they  were,  without  even  stopping  to  brush  the 
dust  from  their  shoes.  There  were  six  or  eight  fairs  in  England 
as  famous  as  that  of  Winchester,  and  several  hundred  of  lesser 
importance,  many  of  them  being  held  in  mere  villages  and  only 
for  the  sale  of  live  stock  or  of  some  special  article.  More  than 
a  hundred  charters  for  fairs  were  granted  in  King  John's  time,  and 
more  than  two  hundred  in  the  time  of  Henry  III. 

168.  Country  Villages. — The  great  mass  of  the  people  of  Eng- 
land, however,  knew  nothing  about  either  fairs  or  town  life.  They 
lived,  as  they  had  lived  for  centuries,  in  small  villages  in  the 
country.  Most  of  them  are  described  in  the  records  of  the  time 


Plowing  in  the  Thirteenth  Century  (copied  from  a  manuscript) 

as  either  villeins  or  cotters.  The  cotters  were  laborers  who 
occupied  cottages  in  the  village,  each  perhaps  also  having  an 
acre  or  two  of  land,  or  even  less,  somewhere  near  the  village. 
The  villeins  made  up  the  great  body  of  the  ordinary  villagers. 
They  were  small  farmers,  having  their  land  in  the  fields  sur- 
rounding the  village  and  living  probably  much  as  they  had  done 
in  Saxon  and  in  still  earlier  times.  The  ordinary  villein  seldom 
had  less  than  ten  or  more  than  thirty  or  forty  acres  of  land. 
This  was  quite  as  much  as  he  could,  with  the  aid  of  his  family, 
attend  to,  in  addition  to  his  performance  of  the  services  required 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION      2OI 

by  the  landlord,  for  each  village  and  its  surrounding  fields  were 
subject  to  certain  rights  of  ownership  of  some  "  lord  of  the  manor." 
The  lord  of  the  manor  might  be  a  noble  or  knight  or  other  sub- 
stantial landholder,  a  monastery  or  bishopric  or  college,  or  it 
might  be  the  king  himself.  Much  of  the  land  in  each  vill1 
belonged  directly  to  the  lord  of  the  manor.  This  land  was  called 
the  demesne,  and  although  scattered  about  in  separate  pieces  in 
the  open  fields  surrounding  the  village,  was  carried  on  as  one 
large  farm,  the  produce  going  directly  to  the  lord  of  the  manor. 
The  cotters  and  villeins  were  bound  to  furnish  an  amount  of 
labor  which  was  generally  sufficient  to  cultivate  the  demesne 
without  cost  to  the  lord  of  the  manor.  Each  cotter  had  usually 
to  devote  one  day's  labor  in  each  week,  and  each  villein  three 
or  four  days  to  working  on  the  lord's  land,  for  which  labor  they 
received  no  pay.  At  certain  seasons  of  the  year  they  had  also  to 
do  much  extra  plowing,  harvesting,  threshing,  and  hauling  for  the 
lord  of  the  manor. 

In  addition  to  these  labor  services  the  villeins  and  cotters  had 
also  to  make  payments  to  the  lord  in  money  and  in  kind.  They 
had  also  to  attend  the  court,  which  the  lords  of  the  manors  kept 
up,  and  to  submit  to  the  decisions  given  and  fines  imposed  there. 
The  manor  court  met  every  few  weeks  under  the  presidency  of 
the  lord's  steward,  settled  various  kinds  of  suits,  and  punished 
offenses  of  the  tenants  of  the  manor.2 

169.  Serfdom. — The  villeins  and  cotters  were  bound  to  stay 
upon  the  manor,  or  to  leave  it  only  on  being  given  permission  by 
the  lord  of  the  manor.  The  land  which  they  held  was,  at  least 

1  "  Village,"  or  "  vill  "  (Latin  villa),  and  "  manor  "  meant  practically  the 
same  thing  at  this  time,  although  the  word  manor  is  generally  used  when 
the  rights  of  the  lord  over  it  are  being  discussed,  vill  when  the  people  and 
their  land  are  referred  to. 

2  Instances  of  the  services  required  from  villeins,  of  the  amounts  of  land 
they  held,  and  of  the  proceedings  of  the  manor  courts  can  be  found  in 
Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  5,  "  Manorial  Documents." 


202  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

nominally,  the  property  of  the  lord.  In  the  eyes  of  the  common 
law  they  were  not  free  men  but  serfs.  They  could  not  have  their 
suits  heard  in  the  hundred  or  shire  courts  or  in  the  courts  of  the 
king,  but  only  in  the  manor  courts  of  their  lords.  They  were 
bound  to  do  what  the  lord  or  his  representatives  required  them  to 
do  on  the  days  when  custom  required  them  to  work  for  him. 
Villeinage  or  serfdom  consisted  of  a  group  of  burdensome  require- 
ments, including  both  the  payment  of  money  and  the  performance 
of  services,  of  limitations  on  a  man's  freedom  to  come  and  go  when 
and  where  he  chose,  of  a  general  uncertainty  as  to  his  title  to  his 
property,  and  of  exclusion  from  the  protection  given  by  the  public 
courts  of  the  country.  Probably  two  thirds  of  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  England  in  the  thirteenth  century  were  in  this  position 
of  serfdom.  The  rest  were  either  citizens  of  towns,  churchmen, 
lords  of  manors,  or  the  common  freemen  of  the  country. 

170.  Freemen.  — These  freemen  lived  in  the  villages,  along  with 
the  villeins  and  cotters  already  described.  Like  them  they  were 
tenants  of  the  lord  of  the  manor,  holding  their  land  from  him. 
They  were  also  subject  to  many  of  the  same  payments  as  the 
villeins.  They  were  often  required  also  to  attend  the  manor 
court.  Those  who  had  small  holdings  must  have  shared  much 
of  the  village  life  of  villeins  and  cotters.  On  the  other  hand, 
every  freeman  could  dispose  of  his  land  and  leave  the  manor  if 
he  chose ;  he  could  bring  his  suits  into  the  king's  court  instead 
of  that  of  the  manor  if  he  wished  to  ;  he  was  independent  of  the 
lord  of  the  manor  in  regard  to  everything  except  his  land ;  he 
was  not  burdened  with  the  payment  of  servile  dues ;  and,  above 
all,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  he  was  free.  He  was  not  free  because 
he  had  more  land  than  the  villeins,  but  because  he  belonged  to  a 
different  class.  Some  freemen  probably  held  even  less  land  than 
some  of  the  villeins,  though  usually  they  held  more.  It  was  these 
freemen  or  freeholders  in  the  country,  along  with  the  citizens  of 
the  towns,  who  had  to  be  ready  for  military  service  according 
to  the  Assize  of  Arms,  who  had  to  form  the  juries  to  accuse 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION      203 

criminals  according  to  the  Assize  of  Clarendon,  who  formed 
the  greater  number  of  the  suitors  in  the  king's  courts,  and  the 
greater  number  of  substantial  taxpayers.  They  made  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  nation  in  the  eyes  of  the  government.  The  villeins 
and  cotters,  although  they  made  a  majority  of  the  population,  were 
looked  upon  as  in  a  certain  sense  the  property  of  the  lords  of  the 
manors,  and  were  not  taken  much  account  of  by  the  government. 

If  a  freeman  had  as  much  land  as  would  bring  him  in  an  income 
of  twenty  pounds  a  year,  he  must  by  law  become  a  knight ;  that  is, 
he  must  either  be  dubbed  a  knight  or  at  least  pay  feudal  services 
for  his  land  and  in  other  ways  do  the  services  expected  from  a 
knight.1  The  class  of  freemen  in  this  way  led  up  from  those  who 
were  scarcely  distinguishable  from  villeins  to  the  feudal  and  noble 
classes,  with  scarcely  a  break  anywhere  between.  It  was  one  of 
the  striking  characteristics  of  the  English  nation  that  the  different 
classes  shaded  into  one  another,  from  the  peasantry  all  the  way 
up  to  the  barons  and  earls. 

171.  Written  Records.  — The  thirteenth  century  was  in  peace- 
ful matters  one  of  the  greatest  centuries  in  English  history.  The 
long  reign  of  Henry  III  was  a  period  in  which  architecture,  learn- 
ing, education,  law,  trade,  and  many  other  occupations  and 
interests  were  advancing  rapidly  and  taking  the  form  which  gave 
shape  to  much  of  later  history.  Our  knowledge  of  the  period  is 
likewise  greater  than  of  any  earlier  time.  We  are  no  longer 
dependent  on  the  chronicles  and  royal  charters  alone  for  our 
information  about  contemporary  events  or  conditions.  Early  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  that  is  to  say  in  the  reigns  of  John  and 
Henry  III,  it  became  customary  for  very  many  more  records  to 
be  kept.  Each  branch  of  the  royal  court  kept  a  record  of  its 
decisions  ;  charters  granted  in  the  name  of  the  king  were  recorded 

1  This  requirement  was  known  as  "  distraint  of  knighthood."  An  income 
of  twenty  pounds  a  year  would  probably  mean  that  a  man  had  at  least  four 
or  five  hundred  acres  of  land.  He  would  therefore  in  most  cases  be  the 
holder  of  a  whole  manor. 


204  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

on  the  "  patent  rolls  "  ;  the  bishops  began  to  keep  written  registers 
of  their  business ;  and  the  stewards  of  the  manor  courts  kept  rolls 
of  the  doings  at  their  meetings.  Lords  of  manors  from  time  to 
time  drew  up  surveys  giving  the  names  and  services  of  all  their 
tenants.  Many  town  documents  and  gild  records  dating  from 
this  period  give  an  insight  into  that  side  of  life.  The  bulk  of 
documents  still  existing  from  the  thirteenth  century  is  enormous ; 
and  such  study  as  has  yet  been  devoted  to  them  gives  us  a  much 
clearer  picture  of  those  times  than  is  possible  for  any  earlier 
period. 

172.  Reign  of  Henry  III. — The  personal  history  of  the  king 
and  the  political  events  of  this  period  were  very  troubled.     The 
unpopularity  of  Henry  III  after  he  grew  to  be  a  man,  which  has 
been  referred  to  before,  was  due  largely  to  two  things,  —  his  habit 
of  choosing  foreigners  as  advisers  and  officeholders,  and  his  sub- 
servience to  the  pope. 

Most  of  the  barons  could  now  fairly  enough  be  called  English- 
men. Since  the  loss  of  Normandy  and  Anjou  they  had  estates 
in  England  only,  and  their  interests  were  necessarily  at  home. 
Men  whose  ancestors  had  been  born  and  had  lived  on  English 
soil  for  several  generations  felt  that  they  we-re  natives  of  the 
country,  even  if  their  forefathers  had  gotten  it  by  conquest  and 
even  if  they  still  usually  spoke  a  language  different  from  the 
native  language  of  the  country. 

173.  Foreign   Favorites   of   the   King.  — The   men    to   whom 
Henry  gave    his  confidence  were,   on   the    other   hand,   recent 
immigrants  from  Poitou  and  other  districts  of  France.     Peter, 
a  Poitevin,  who  had  been  made  bishop  of  Winchester  and  at 
one  time  chancellor,  was  for  a  long  time  the  principal  adviser  of 
the  king,  and  used  his  influence  for  the  protection  of  foreigners 
and  their  appointment  to  office.    The  king's  marriage  with  Eleanor 
of  Provence  brought  the  relatives  of  the  new  quee'n  and  their 
dependents  flocking  from  that  country  into  England,  expecting 
and  obtaining  high  offices  in  church  and  state,  titles  and  grants 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION      205 

of  royal  land.  Among  these  Boniface  of  Savoy,  the  queen's  uncle, 
became  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  When  Henry's  liberality  to 
foreigners  became  known  a  similar  invasion  of  the  relatives  of 
his  mother  by  her  second  marriage  came  from  Poitou  and  were 
similarly  welcomed. 

England  was  becoming  a  rich  country,  but  its  people  were 
behind  those  of  the  continent  in  quickness  of  mind  and  business 
ability.  Many  of  the  foreigners  who  sought  Henry's  patronage 
had  much  shrewdness  and  skill  in  money  matters.  They  had 
better  ways  of  borrowing,  buying,  and  bookkeeping.  They  were 
also  brighter  in  conversation,  more  polished  in  manners,  and  more 
familiar  with  literature  than  Englishmen.  Over  the  king,  with  his 
intellectual  but  easy-going  and  pleasure-loving  disposition,  they 
had  therefore  great  influence.  By  the  English  nobles  and  church- 
men whom  they  displaced  in  position  and  influence,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  were  heartily  disliked. 

The  English  nation  as  a  whole  had  even  better  grounds  of 
complaint  against  them.  Through  their  influence  the  king  was 
led  into  great  expenditures  which  were  not  of  national  interest  or 
benefit.  The  foreign  clerks  and  officers  were  skillful  in  borrowing 
money,  in  buying  things  that  pleased  the  king,  and  in  making  the 
necessary  arrangements  for  the  collection  of  taxes  and  the  trans- 
mission of  money  abroad  ;  but  in  the  long  run  the  English  people 
paid  all  the  bills.  This  was  the  more  hateful  because  the  expenses 
had  been  incurred  not  through  the  ministers  but  through  the 
mere  clerks  whom  the  king  employed. 

174.  Henry's  Relations  with  the  Pope. — The  popes  of  this 
period  were  unusually  able  and  ambitious  men.  Innocent  III  had 
been  successful  in  the  long  struggle  with  John ;  he  was  later 
engaged  in  a  similar  contest  with  the  king  of  France,  and  was 
concerned  in  the  political  affairs  of  most  of  the  countries  of 
Europe.  Those  who  followed  him  were  strong  popes,  who  kept 
up  a  long  contest  with  the  German  emperors  and  finally  humbled 
them  and  obtained  their  desires.  The  dependence  of  England 


206  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND 

on  the  pope  had  been  increased  by  John's  action,  and  Henry  had 
been  under  the  protection  and  guidance  of  papal  legates  during 
all  his  early  life.  It  was  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  pope's 
power  in  England  should  be  great;  but  Henry  allowed  it  to 
increase  far  beyond  what  it  had  ever  been  before. 

Time  and  time  again  during  his  reign  the  papal  court  imposed 
taxes  upon  the  English  clergy,  and  several  times  it  demanded 
large  contributions  from  clergymen  and  laymen  alike  towards 
the  expense  of  certain  projects  carried  on  by  the  pope  and  his 
advisers  outside  of  England.  The  pope  claimed  that  these  proj- 
ects were  for  the  common  good  of  all  Christendom,  and  that 
the  Christians  of  all  lands  should  therefore  contribute  towards 
them ;  but  to  Englishmen  generally  they  seemed  to  be  largely 
for  the  private  objects  of  the  pope  as  a  man,  engaged  in  personal 
quarrels,  or  as  the  ruler  of  an  Italian  province  carrying  out  a 
policy  which  had  no  interest  or  importance  for  Englishmen.  King 
Henry  was  almost  alone  in  England  in  approving  of  this  taxation 
of  Englishmen  for  papal  purposes  and  by  papal  collectors. 

175.  Papal  Representatives  in  England. — Several  times  also 
papal  legates  or  ambassadors  came  into  England.  One  of  them, 
Cardinal  Otho,1  came  at  the  invitation  of  the  king  and  stayed  for 
years,  engaged  in  a  general  reform  of  the  English  church,  exercis- 
ing high  powers  and  exacting  large  sums  of  money  for  his  own 
expenses  and  for  the  needs  of  the  pope.  The  representatives 
who  were  in  England  simply  for  the  collection  of  money  were 
still  more  objectionable  and  riots  sometimes  occurred  because 
of  their  exactions. 

1  "  Cardinal "  is  a  title  of  honor  given  to  certain  prelates  who  are  the  nomi- 
nal holders  of  the  bishoprics  and  other  ecclesiastical  positions  in  the  city  of 
Rome  and  its  suburbs.  Apart  from  the  office  which  gives  them  the  title 
of  cardinal,  however,  they  are  usually  archbishops  or  bishops  in  the  various 
countries  of  Christendom.  Their  number  has  varied  at  different  times  from 
twenty  to  seventy.  They  are  the  advisers  of  the  pope  and  the  highest 
church  officials.  On  the  pope's  death  they  meet  in  conclave  and  elect  his 
successor  from  their  own  number. 


FORMATION   OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH   NATION      207 

176.  Italian  Holders  of  English  Church  Positions. — As  the  part 
played   by  the   pope  in   Europe  became  a  larger  one,  a  great 
number  of  churchmen  connected  themselves  with  the  papal  court 
at  Rome  and  served  as  officials  of  the  pope.     These  he  desired 
to  reward  or  support  by  having  them  appointed  to  church  posi- 
tions in  various  countries.     At  one  time  he  urged  Henry  to  agree 
that  no  churchman  should   be   appointed   to  any  vacancy  that 
should  occur  till  three  hundred  Italians  had  been  provided  with 
English  church  positions.    This  practice  was  opposed  by  the  most 
devout  English  churchmen  as  well  as  by  those  who  were  not 
ecclesiastics,  but   the   king   made  no  serious  opposition   to  it. 
Henry  also  allowed  appeals  to  be  taken  from  the  English  church 
courts  to  the  papal  court  without  opposition,  and  paid  regularly 
the  sum  of  money  which  John  had  agreed  to  give  the  pope  in 
recognition  of  his  overlordship  of  England. 

Finally,  in  1257,  Henry  agreed  to  let  the  pope  grant  to  Edmund, 
his  second  son,  the  kingdom  of  Sicily,  the  pope  having  just  declared 
the  dethronement  of  the  former  king  of  that  country.  It  would 
require  a  war,  called  by  the  pope  a  crusade,  to  drive  out  the 
former  king  and  place  Henry's  son  in  his  position,  and  the  Eng- 
lish king  agreed  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war. 

177.  Growth  of  the  Power  of  the  Great  Council. — The  Great 
Council  had  met  throughout  the  reigns  of  John  and  Henry  III 
with  greater  frequency  than  in  earlier  times,  and  the  earls,  barons, 
bishops,  and  abbots  who  attended  it  took  a  larger  part  in  the  dis- 
cussions.    Gradually  the  name  "parliament"1  came  into  use  to 
designate  the  Great  Council.      By  the  middle  of  Henry's  reign 
it  met  almost  every  year,  and  sometimes  even  more  often.    Many 
of  these  meetings  were  occasions  for  sharp  disputes,  in  some  of 
which  the  king  himself  took  part.     The  barons  frequently  refused 

1  From  the  French  word  parler,  to  speak,  having  reference  to  its  being 
a  meeting  for  speaking  or  discussion.  It  had  formerly  been  frequently 
and  was  still  occasionally  called  by  one  or  other  of  the  terms  council, 
convention,  colloquy,  or  convocation. 


208  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  taxes  demanded  by  the  king,  and  complained  of  his  policy  and 
bad  management  of  the  duties  of  government  and  of  the  finances. 

178.  Simon  of  Montfort,  and  the  Provisions  of  Oxford.  —  The 
leader  among  the  barons  for  many  years  was  Simon  of  Montfort, 
earl  of  Leicester.  He  was  in  reality  one  of  those  foreign  adven- 
turers who  had  come  from  France  to  the  English  court.  His  family 
were  nobles  from  the  south  of  France,  but  through  his  grandmother 
he  inherited  the  earldom  of  Leicester  in  England.  When  he  came 
he  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  earldom  and  married  the  sister  of 
the  king.  Instead  of  remaining  a  foreigner,  however,  he  threw 
himself  into  all  the  interests  and  feelings  of  the  English  baronage, 
and  had  much  intercourse  with  the  English  bishops  and  abbots, 
especially  with  those  whose  national  feelings  were  opposed  to  the 
constant  interference  of  the  pope  in  English  affairs.  Little  by 
little  Earl  Simon  became  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  baron- 
age, and  over  and  over  again  he  led  their  opposition  to  the  king. 

At  last,  at  two  successive  parliaments  held  in  1258,  the  barons, 
led  by  Simon,  took  such  a  decided  stand  that  the  king  was  forced 
to  agree  to  a  series  of  changes  by  which  many  reforms  were  intro- 
duced into  the  government.  Foreigners  were  to  be  removed,  other 
ministers  appointed,  various  committees  of  bishops  and  barons 
authorized  to  carry  out  reforms,  and  a  permanent  governing 
council  of  bishops  and  nobles  chosen.  This  council  was  to 
control  all  the  actions  of  the  king,  appoint  ministers  and  office- 
holders for  him,  and  have  possession  of  the  royal  castles.  These 
arrangements  were  known  as  the  "  Provisions  of  Oxford,"  from 
the  place  where  parliament  met  when  they  were  finally  drawn 
up.  All  concerned,  including  the  king,  took  an  oath  to  conform 
to  the  Provisions. 

Henry  found  the  restrictions  very  hard  to  endure  and  tried  to 
free  himself  from  the  Provisions.  When  he  threatened  to  revoke 
them  Earl  Simon  and  many  of  the  barons  armed  themselves  and 
prepared  for  civil  war.  Various  efforts  at  settlement  were  made. 
At  one  time  the  whole  dispute  was  referred  to  the  king  of  France, 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION      209 

Louis  IX,  or  Saint  Louis,  as  he  was  called.  With  his  high  ideas 
of  royal  power  and  duty  Louis  decided  all  points  in  favor  of  Henry 
and  annulled  the  Provisions  of  Oxford.1  The  barons,  however, 
refused  to  accept  this  award  and  war  broke  out  in  1263.  The 
king,  his  son,  Prince  Edward,  and  a  part  of  the  barons  were  on 
one  side.  Earl  Simon  and  another  party  of  the  barons,  supported 
by  the  general  approval  of  the  nation,  were  on  the  other. 

A  great  battle  was  fought  in  1264  at  Lewes  in  Kent,  in  which 
the  rebellious  barons  were  victorious.  The  king  was  captured  and 
held  in  imprisonment  by  them,  while  Earl  Simon  carried  on  the 
government  in  the  royal  name.  Next  year,  however,  war  broke 
out  again.  At  the  battle  of  Evesham  the  barons  were  defeated, 
and  the  three  years  of  fighting  ended  with  the  death  of  Earl  Simon 
and  the  victory  of  the  king,  or  rather  of  his  eldest  son,  Edward. 
The  king  made  some  concessions  which  were  announced  in 
a  parliament.  Edward  and  many  of  the  nobles  went  away  on  a 
crusade,  and  things  remained  peaceful  until  the  death  of  Henry 
in  1272,  and  even  during  the  two  years  that  followed  while 
Edward  was  still  absent  in  the  East. 

179.  Accession  of  Edward  I. — Edward  made  his  way  home- 
ward through  Italy  and  France,  visiting  the  pope  and  doing 
homage  to  the  king  of  France  for  his  French  dominions  on  his 
way.  He  reached  England,  was  crowned  in  1274,  and  reigned 
thirty-five  years.  The  most  noteworthy  feature  of  this  period  was 
its  intensely  national  character.  Edward,  in  striking  contrast  to 
his  father,  was  strongly  English.  Along  with  his  old  English 
name  he  had  a  decided  preference  for  Englishmen  and  English 
ways.  Henry  II  had  looked  upon  England  only  as  one  of  a  group 
of  countries  in  each  of  which  he  had  the  position  of  ruler; 
Richard  had  thought  of  it  merely  as  a  source  of  money  to  enable 
him  to  go  on  crusade  or  to  live  in  his  other  dominions  ;  Henry  III 
had  lived  most  of  the  time  in  England,  and  only  occasionally 

1  This  decision  was  known  as  the  "  Mise  of  Amiens,"  and  the  wars  that 
followed  are  known  as  the  "  Barons'  Wars." 


210  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

visited  his  possessions  in  the  south  of  France,  but  his  intimate 
friends  and  his  personal  tastes  were  all  French.  In  Edward, 
however,  the  English  people  at  last  had  a  truly  national  king, 
who  loved  England ;  one  whose  aim  it  was  to  carry  out  an  Eng- 
lish policy,  to  make  England  the  center  of  his  interests,  and  to 
choose  Englishmen  as  ministers  of  his  government.  This  attitude 
of  the  king  was  in  harmony  with  the  condition  of  the  country. 
The  English  were  becoming  more  distinctly  a  single  nation.  The 
foreign  elements  of  the  population  were  being  absorbed  into  the 
mass  of  the  people.  The  days  had  gone  by  when  foreigners 
ruled  over  England  and  when  the  people  were  separated  into 
different  nationalities  one  superior  to  the  other.  The  people  of 
one  region  were  likewise  brought  much  more  into  contact  with 
those  of  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  various  causes  were  bring- 
ing classes  more  into  union. 

1 80.  Parliament.  —  One  means  by  which  this  unity  was  accom- 
plished was  the  representative  character  given  to  the  parliament. 
Judged  by  its  influence  in  after  times  on  England  and  on  other 
countries  the  completion  of  the  organization  of  parliament  was 
vastly  the  most  important  event  of  this  time.  Even  during  the 
time  of  Henry  III  parliaments  had  become  occasions  for  discuss- 
ing the  policy  of  the  government.  No  great  change  was  intro- 
duced by  the  king,  no  important  action  was  undertaken,  nor  did 
he  try  to  collect  any  tax  without  obtaining  the  agreement  of  a 
Great  Council,  that  is  to  say,  of  parliament. 

The  king  and  his  ministers  felt  that  the  general  approval  of  all 
the  influential  classes  of  the  people  was  desirable  and  even  neces- 
sary for  the  successful  carrying  out  of  any  measure.  This  approval 
by  the  influential  classes  of  the  nation  could  be  obtained  only 
by  calling  a  parliament  and  consulting  with  it.  In  one  of  his 
proclamations  Edward  laid  down  his  policy  by  declaring  that 
"that  which  affects  all  should  be  approved  by  all." 

Who  were  the  "influential  classes"?  Who  were  the  "all" 
whom  the  king  had  in  his  mind?  In  earlier  times  it  had  been 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     211 

simply  the  nobles  and  prelates.  But  a  change  had  come  over  the 
country.  The  earls  and  barons  and  great  churchmen  were  no 
longer  the  only  people  of  influence.  The  number  of  freemen 
below  these  ranks  who  yet  had  land,  money,  position,  and  intelli- 
gence was  very  great.  In  the  country  districts  there  were  many 
knights.  There  was  a  still  greater  number  of  substantial  free- 
holders who  held  some  land  but  not  sufficient  to  make  them  of 
knightly  rank.  These  classes  represented  a  large  part  of  the  solid 
strength  of  the  country.  In  the  cities  and  boroughs,  which 
had  been  growing  in  number  and  size,  there  were  many  rich, 
enterprising,  and  intelligent  merchants. 

181.  Introduction  of  the  Middle  Classes  into  Parliament. — If  it 
was  desirable  for  the  king  to  obtain  the  agreement  of  all  the 
important  classes  of  the  community  to  public  measures  these  sub- 
stantial middle  classes  could  hardly  be  neglected.  Especially  was 
this  so  when  it  came  to  a  question  of  taxation.  Land  was  no 
longer  the  only  form  of  wealth  in  the  country.  There  was  a  great 
deal  of  money,  of  personal  property,  of  wool  and  similar  articles 
raised  for  export,  and  of  goods  brought  in  from  foreign  countries. 
Therefore  the  feudal  payments  of  the  barons  were  only  a  small 
part  of  the  contributions  that  might  be  levied  for  the  purposes 
of  the  government.  All  these  other  forms  of  property  might  be 
taxed,  and  vastly  the  greater  part  of  them  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
well-to-do  middle  classes  in  the  country  and  the  towns.  There- 
fore from  the  point  of  view  of  taxation  these  classes  were  even 
more  important  than  the  nobles  or  the  great  churchmen. 

The  knights  and  freeholders  of  the  country  districts  could  be 
reached  through  the  county  courts,  the  merchants  through  the 
town  governments,  and  for  some  time  no  better  way  had  been 
found  of  obtaining  their  agreement  to  taxation  than  for  the  king's 
justices  and  exchequer  officials  to  appeal  to  each  county  court 
and  to  the  officials  of  each  town  directly.  This  was  usually 
done  by  the  justices  when  they  went  on  circuit.  At  each  county 
court  they  demanded  a  certain  rate  of  taxation  previously  decided 


212  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

upon  at  a  parliament  or  merely  by  the  king's  ordinary  council. 
But  this  was  a  cumbrous,  uncertain,  and  vexatious  process.  A 
better  one  was  soon  devised. 

182.  Representation. — The  choice  by  a  large  body  of  a  few 
persons  to  represent  them  had  become  a  familiar  custom  in  Eng- 
land. In  some  obscure  forms  it  had  been  practiced  far  back  in 
Saxon  times,  but  its  distinct  use  was  introduced  by  the  govern- 
ment during  Norman  and  Angevin  times.  According  to  the 
Assize  of  Clarendon  the  accusing  jury  represented  the  people 
of  a  locality,  and  a  trial  jury  in  the  same  way  represented  the 
body  of  neighbors  of  the  person  charged  with  an  offense.  When 
taxes  were  to  be  collected  each  county  court  elected  representa- 
tives to  assess  the  sum  to  be  paid  by  each  person.  During  the 
thirteenth  century  this  custom  of  having  all  the  people  of  any 
one  locality  represented  by  a  few  was  becoming  almost  universal 
in  local  affairs.  It  was  not  long  before  the  same  plan  was 
introduced  in  national  affairs. 

This  plan  was  as  follows.  The  king  required  each  county  and 
each  town  to  send  representatives  to  the  general  meetings  of  par- 
liament so  that  the  agreement  of  those  they  represented  could  be 
obtained  at  the  same  time  as  that  of  the  barons  and  clergy.  Several 
times  during  the  reign  of  Henry  III  the  county  courts  were  ordered 
to  send  representatives  to  parliament;  and  once,  in  1 2 65, 1  while 
the  king  was  under  the  control  of  Simon  of  Montfort,  representa- 
tives of  both  counties  and  towns  were  summoned.  The  custom 
was  not  regularly  followed,  however,  and  most  parliaments  con- 
tained only  the  old  classes,  —  earls,  barons,  bishops,  and  abbots. 

1  This  date  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  "  beginning  of  parliament."  It 
is  only  so  in  the  sense  that  it  was  the  first  time  that  representatives  of  both 
the  counties  and  the  towns,  in  addition  to  the  nobles  and  churchmen,  were 
called  to  attend  parliament.  Parliament  of  course  was  the  same  as  the  Great 
Council  of  the  king,  and  had  always  existed  in  one  form  or  another  from  the 
Anglo-Saxon  witenagemot  downward.  The  -name  parliament,  as  already 
stated,  had  been  used  for  the  Council  for  some  time  before  1265.  The  new 
classes  were  not  regularly  called  again  after  1265  for  some  thirty  years. 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     213 

Edward  was  a  great  constitutional  reformer.  He  was  not  only 
interested  in  obtaining  his  own  immediate  ends  and  the  money 
for  the  needs  of  his  government,  but  he  was  devoted  to  the  work 
of  governing  for  its  own  sake,  and  anxious  to  introduce  perma- 
nent arrangements  for  good  government  into  England.  He  had 
been  as  a  young  man  in  the  thick  of  his  father's  contests  with  the 
barons,  and  seems  to  have  learned  lessons  of  political  wisdom  from 
his  experiences.  During  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  therefore, 
he  summoned  representatives  of  the  towns  and  county  courts 


Ruins  of  Chapter-House  of  Margan  Abbey 

repeatedly  for  consultation,  although  not  according  to  any  invari- 
able plan.  Frequently  still  the  barons  and  clergy  only  were  called 
to  a  parliament,  according  to  the  old  custom. 

183.  Parliament  of  1295.  —  In  1295,  however,  a  more  regular 
system  was  adopted,  which  became  the  standard  and  model  for 
all  later  parliaments.  The  king  summoned  as  usual  the  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  greater  abbots,  earls,  and  barons,  by  a  special 
letter  or  writ1  addressed  to  each,  to  come  to  a  parliament  to  meet 
at  Westminster  on  a  certain  day.  Then  a  writ  was  sent  to  the 

1  A  summons  issued  by  the  king  or  in  the  king's  name  for  such  purposes 
as  this  was  called  a  "writ.  The  wording  of  the  writs  sent  out  in  1295  can  be 
found  in  Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  I,  No.  6. 


214  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

sheriff  of  each  county  ordering  him  to  see  that  two  men  of  the 
rank  of  knight  were  elected  to  represent  the  whole  county,  and 
two  townsmen  to  represent  each  city  or  borough  in  that  county, 
all  of  whom  were  to  come  to  the  appointed  place  to  the  meeting. 

Thus  when  this  parliament  met  in  the  winter  of  1295  its 
membership  consisted  of  the  two  archbishops,  eighteen  bishops, 
about  seventy  abbots,  seven  earls,  and  forty-one  barons ;  and  in 
addition  to  these  some  seventy  representatives  of  the  shires  and 
some  two  hundred  representatives  of  the  towns.  After  this  time 
all  these  classes  were  regularly  summoned  to  parliament. 

184.  The  Houses  of  Lords  and  Commons. — There  was  much  to 
draw  the  representatives  from  the  shires  and  those  from  the  towns 
together.  Both  classes  were  newcomers  in  parliament,  both  were 
elected  deputies  of  other  men,  both  were  humble  in  position  com- 
pared with  the  barons  and  clergy.  Therefore  they  acted  together 
and  were  frequently  treated  as  one  class.  They  became  known 
as  the  "  commons  "  in  parliament.  The  commons  were  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  middle  classes,  or  those  next  below  the  nobility 
and  higher  clergy. 

So  far  as  is  known,  no  regular  custom  of  sitting  in  parliament 
was  followed  at  first,  but  as  time  passed  on  the  difference  of  posi- 
tion and  interests  between  the  older  classes  in  parliament  and  the 
commons  led  to  the  custom  of  sitting  in  two  different  rooms  and 
being  organized  as  two  separate  bodies.1  These  became  known  as 
the  House  of  Lords,  including  the  nobles  and  clergy,  and  the 
House  of  Commons,  including  the  representatives  of  the  shires 
and  the  towns.  The  House  of  Commons  elected  a  "  speaker," 
to  represent  them  in  conferences  with  the  king  and  to  preside 
over  their  meetings.  The  lord  chancellor  presided  over  the  House 
of  Lords.  Each  house  grew  to  have  somewhat  different  customs, 
powers,  and  privileges. 

1  This  is  often  spoken  of  as  the  "  bicameral  system,"  or  system  of  two 
chambers,  and  has  been  imitated  in  modem  times  in  the  United  States  and 
in  jriost  other  countries. 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     215 

The  bishops  and  abbots  sat  in  parliament  not  only  as  great 
churchmen  but  as  representatives  of  the  whole  organized  church. 
The  nobility  of  England  were  the  earls  and  barons  who  were  sum- 
moned in  person  to  parliament.  The  commons  were  considered 
to  represent  all  the  rest  of  the  nation,  though  of  course  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  had  no  influence  in  their  election  or  over  their 
actions  in  parliament.1 

185.  Statutes.  —  Edward  was  not  only  a  great  constitutional 
reformer,  but  was  also  a  great  legislator.     His  time  was  a  period 
of  important  lawgivers.     Louis  IX  of  France  issued  many  decisive 
statutes  and  had  the  feudal  law  of  that  country  put  into  formal 
shape.     Frederick  II  of  Sicily  issued  one  of  the  most  famous  legal 
codes  in  history,  and  Alfonso  the  Wise  of  Castile  did  the  same 
for  his  country.     All  these  great  lawgiving  kings  lived  within  the 
same  half  century. 

Edward's  reign  was  marked  by  a  series  of  laws  that  stand  in  the 
forefront  of  the  long  line  of  English  statutes.  Statutes  are  written 
laws,  not  simply  arising  from  custom,  as  the  common  law,  nor 
issued  as  instructions  to  royal  officials,  as  were  the  assizes  of 
Henry  II,  but  regularly  drawn  up  and  agreed  to  by  both  the  king 
and  his  parliament.  Almost  at  the  beginning  of  the  statute  book 
come  a  series  of  long  statutes  adopted  at  various  times  during 
Edward's  reign,  some  of  them  directed  towards  single  specific 
objects,  others  including  a  vast  variety  of  matters.  From  this 
time  onward  statutes  became  more  numerous.  Edward  has  some- 
times been  called  the  English  Justinian,  because  like  that  Roman 
emperor  he  did  so  much  to  develop  and  codify  the  laws  of  the 
country. 

1 86.  The  Confirmation   of   the  Charters. — There  were  many 
disputes  between  Edward  and  various  classes  of  his  subjects,  —  at 

1  The  three  classes,  lords  spiritual,  lords  temporal,  and  commons,  were 
often  called  the  "  three  estates  "  of  the  realm.  The  word  "  estate  "  is  from 
the  Latin  stare,  to  stand,  or  to  be  established,  and  therefore  means  an 
established  class. 


2l6  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

one  time  with  the  baronage,  at  another  time  with  the  clergy,  at 
another  with  the  merchants.  His  government  was  a  strong  one 
and  often  bore  so  hardly  on  certain  classes  of  the  people  as  to 
arouse  their  resistance.  "  By  God,  Sir  Earl,"  the  king  once  said 
in  an  outburst  of  wrath  against  the  earl  of  Norfolk,  who  had 
refused  to  go  outside  the  realm  to  fulfill  his  feudal  military  service, 
"  you  shall  either  go  or  hang."  "  By  God,  Sir  King,  I  shall  neither 
go  nor  hang,"  was  the  reply  of  the  haughty  nobleman. 

Taxation  was  none  the  less  heavy  because  the  people  were  induced 
to  agree  to  it  in  parliament.  Indeed  under  the  pressure  of  his 
needs  Edward  was  not  satisfied  with  the  regular  grants  of  taxes 
made  in  parliament,  but  in  opposition  to  the  spirit  if  not  the  letter 
of  the  law  demanded  many  other  payments  from  the  towns,  from 
the  merchants,  and  from  the  peasantry  on  the  royal  estates. 

In  1297  resistance  to  the  king  rose  so  high  that  advantage  was 
taken  of  his  immediate  need  of  money  and  troops  to  require  him 
to  agree  to  a  document  solemnly  confirming  the  Great  Charter 
and  the  Forest  Charter,1  and  making  some  additional  promises  by 
which  he  gave  up  all  right  of  taxation  except  "  by  the  common 
consent  of  the  realm."  Although  the  charters  were  confirmed 
many  times  afterward,  as  they  had  been  before,  yet  this  action  has 
been  called  in  a  special  sense  "  The  Confirmation  of  the  Charters." 
The  additional  articles  now  agreed  to  made  it  necessary  for  the 
king  to  consult  parliament  before  collecting  any  taxes.  Thus  that 
body  was  placed  in  a  position  of  far  greater  power  than  before, 
and,  if  the  "  Confirmation  "  should  be  faithfully  maintained,  parlia- 
ment would  be  enabled  to  control  the  king's  actions  by  limiting 
the  funds  at  his  disposal.  Like  all  other  far-reaching  laws,  however, 
it  was  only  enforced  in  part,  and  kings  still  found  opportunity  to 
secure  money  without  a  special  grant. 

187.  The  Jews.  —  One  of  the  best  known  actions  of  Edward 
was  the  banishment  of  all  Jews  from  England.  There  do  not 

1  The  Forest  Charter  had  been  issued  by  Henry  III  to  limit  the  rigor  of 
the  forest  laws. 


FORMATION   OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     217 

seem  to  have  been  any  Jews  in  England  in  Anglo-Saxon  times. 
After  the  Conquest,  however,  they  came  in  with  other  immigrants 
and  their  numbers  had  since  become  large.  Their  religion  set 
them  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  population  of  the  country,  who 
were  all  members  of  the  same  organized  Christian  church.  Every 
Englishman  was  considered  to  belong  in  some  parish  and  in  some 
diocese.  Not  only  his  religious  interests  but  his  marriage,  the 
inheritance  of  his  property,  his  burial,  were  matters  for  the  control 
of  the  church.  The  whole  of  ordinary  life  was  conducted  on  the 
supposition  that  men  were  members  of  the  same  religious  body. 

The  Jews  did  not  fit  into  this  framework  and  so  had  to  live 
a  life  apart.  They  were  allowed  to  live  only  in  certain  wards 
of  the  larger  towns, which  were  known  as  "Jewries."  They  were 
required  also  to  wear  a  special  dress  or  a  badge  of  yellow  cloth 
on  the  breast.  They  were  considered  to  be  living  in  the  country 
not  by  common  right  but  by  the  special  consent  of  the  king  and 
under  his  protection.  They  were  subject,  therefore,  not  to  the 
common  law  but  to  special  regulations  made  for  them  by  the  king 
or  his  officers.  In  ordinary  life  they  were  to  a  considerable 
extent  under  the  government  of  their  own  leading  men. 

The  ordinary  occupations  were  closed  to  the  Jews  by  popular 
hatred  and  by  the  religious  customs  followed  by  the  people  in 
these  occupations.  Jews  could  not  be  members  of  merchant  or 
craft  gilds  in  the  towns,  or  farmers  in  country  villages.  They  were 
of  course  shut  out  from  the  clergy,  and  generally  speaking  from 
official  positions.  On  the  other  hand,  they  had  superior  abilities. 
Some  were  of  widespread  repute  as  physicians  and  many  were 
famous  for  their  learning.  Their  keenness  in  financial  matters 
was  a  race  characteristic  and  they  were  the  only  class  who  at  that 
time  had  any  considerable  capital.  They  were  also  freed  by  their 
religion  from  the  universal  law  binding  upon  Christians  in  the 
middle  ages  prohibiting  the  lending  of  money  on  interest.  As 
a  consequence  the  great  occupation  of  the  Jews  was  the  unpopular 
trade  of  money  lending. 


2l8  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Unfortunately  money  was  not  usually  at  that  time  loaned  for 
purposes  of  productive  use.  Business  was  all  on  such  a  small 
scale  that  men  carried  it  on  by  their  own  labor  or  with  the  small 
amount  of  capital  which  they  themselves  possessed.  When  men 
borrowed  money  it  was  merely  to  free  themselves  from  pressing 
debts  or  other  difficulties,  to  equip  a  marauding  or  crusading 
expedition,  to  obtain  funds  necessary  to  carry  on  an  expensive 
lawsuit,  to  pay  a  sudden  demand  for  taxes,  or  some  such  unpro- 
ductive use.  They  were  willing  therefore  to  offer,  and  the  Jewish 
money  lender  was  ready  to  demand,  enormous  rates  of  interest. 
When  the  money  was  not  repaid,  as  was  frequently  the  case,  the 
land  or  whatever  else  had  been  given  as  a  pledge  fell  to  the  lender. 
They  were  also  accused  of  "clipping"  the  coin,  that  is,  cutting 
thin  strips  from  the  edges  of  the  silver  coins  and  selling  the  metal 
thus  obtained.  Religious  prejudice  alone  was  sufficient  to  make 
them  hated  by  the  ignorant  classes  of  the  people,  the  whole  race 
being  held  responsible  for  the  crucifixion  of  the  Saviour.  Stories 
went  around  that  they  seized  and  sacrificed  Christian  boys  in  their 
religious  services,  and  that  they  continually  uttered  blasphemies 
against  Christianity. 

1 88.  Royal  Protection  of  the  Jews. — The  unpopularity  of  the 
Jews  was  therefore  very  great.  They  lived  as  an  alien  element  in 
England,  subject  to  a  popular  dislike  which  occasionally  rose,  on 
some  sudden  rumor,  to  a  wild  hatred  that  led  to  the  sacking  of 
the  Jewries  and  the  murder  of  their  inhabitants. 

The  kings,  however,  valued  the  Jews  as  a  body  of  men  among 
whom  there  was  much  wealth  which  could  be  drawn  on  in  vari- 
ous ways.  They  were  required  to  make  heavy  payments  for  pro- 
tection and  privileges.  Regular  poll  taxes  were  collected  from 
them,  and  special  taxes  laid  upon  them  whenever  the  king  felt 
that  this  could  be  done  without  too  greatly  impoverishing  them 
or  causing  their  departure  from  England.  During  the  time  of 
Henry  III  a  more  enlightened  policy  was  adopted,  many  efforts 
being  made  for  their  conversion  to  Christianity  and  regulations 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     219 

issued  for  their  holding  of  landed  property.  A  special  building 
was  erected  at  London  as  a  dwelling  place  for  poor  Jews  who 
should  become  converts  to  Christianity.  Edward  at  first  carried 
this  policy  still  further,  imposing  upon  the  friars  the  special  duty 
of  preaching  to  the  Jews,  and  offering  to  each  convert  the  legal 
possession  of  at  least  one  half  of  the  property  which  had  formerly 
been  at  the  uncontrolled  disposal  of  the  king.  A  law  was  also 
passed  opening  all  occupations  to  Jews  and  allowing  them  to 
rent  land,  but  at  the  same  time  forbidding  them  to  lend  money 
on  interest. 

189.  The  Expulsion. — These  measures,  however,  met   with 
little  success.     There  was  no  perceptible  change  in  their  habits. 
The  wave  of  popular  hatred  was  rising  higher,  so  in  1290  the 
king  issued  a  proclamation  ordering  all  Jews  to  quit  the  kingdom 
before  a  certain  day  under  pain  of  death.     He  allowed  them, 
however,  to  take  their  goods  and  money  with  them,  and  sent 
royal  officers  to  the  ports  from  which  they  were  to  go  to  protect 
them  from  the  injuries  of  the  people.     He  even  provided  free 
passage  for  the  very  poor.     It  is  said  that  16,511  Jewish  emi- 
grants left  England  at  this  time. 

190.  The   Conquest   of   Wales. — Although    Edward    both   by 
nature  and  opportunity  was  inclined  to  devote  his  best  efforts 
to  the  problems  of  government,  most  of  his  time,  like  that  of 
every  other  strong  king  in  the  middle  ages,  was  necessarily  spent 
in  warfare.     He  was  engaged  during  much  of  the  latter  part  of 
his  reign  in  a  contest  with  the  king  of  France  to  retain  Gascony, 
the  sole  remainder  of  the  wreck  of  the  old  dominions  of  the 
English  kings  in  France.     His  two  greatest  series  of  wars,  how- 
ever, were  with  Wales  and  Scotland. 

The  people  of  Wales  had  never  been  completely  conquered  or 
united  with  the  people  of  the  rest  of  England.  The  mountainous 
nature  of  their  country,  their  fierce  character,  and  their  pride  in 
their  Celtic  blood  had  enabled  them  to  preserve  their  political 
independence  under  their  native  chieftains.  The  Welsh  princes 


220  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

had,  it  is  true,  been  forced  from  time  to  time  to  acknowledge  the 
supremacy  of  the  English  king,  but  it  was  only  a  formality,  and 
the  people  of  Wales  continued  to  live  in  practically  independent 
barbarism.  These  half-independent  Welsh  princes  frequently  gave 
help  to  the  enemies  of  the  king,  whether  these  enemies  were 
rebellious  nobles  or  invading  foreigners.  They  also  made  fre- 
quent plundering  raids  into  England  and  in  turn  suffered  from 
similar  raids  in  retaliation  by  the  English  nobles  on  the  borders.1 

Soon  after  Edward's  accession  one  of  these  periodical  conflicts 
arose  under  the  Welsh  prince  Llewelyn,  and  Edward  determined 
to  settle  the  Welsh  contest  once  for  all.  He  therefore  called  a 
parliament  and  obtained  from  it  a  grant  of  taxes,  collected  a  large 
army,  marched  into  Wales,  and,  after  a  desperate  struggle,  put 
down  all  resistance,  captured  and  killed  the  prince,  and  brought 
his  judges  and  Exchequer  officials  to  the  border  to  begin  the  work 
of  transforming  Wales  into  a  part  of  England.  He  issued  a  long 
code  of  regulations  known  as  the  "  Statute  of  Wales,"  which  divided 
that  country  into  shires  on  the  model  of  England  and  introduced 
English  laws  and  customs.  His  infant  son  was  given  the  title 
of  "  Prince  of  Wales,"  which  the  eldest  son  of  the  king  has  borne 
since  that  time.2  The  work  of  conforming  Wales  to  England  was 
only  partly  successful  and  was  accomplished  very  slowly,  but  the 
foundation  for  it  had  been  laid  by  Edward's  expedition. 

191.  The  Question  of  the  Scottish  Succession. — The  claims  of 
the  English  kings  to  supremacy  over  Scotland  were  even  more 
indefinite  and  unreal  than  those  over  Wales  had  been.  Scotland 
really  included  two  different  nations,  —  the  Highlanders,  who  were 

1  The  frontiers  between  England  and  Wales  and  England  and  Scotland 
were  called  the  "  marches,"  and  the  nobles  who  held  estates  in  these 
border  districts  were  called  "lords  marchers." 

2  According  to  an  old  story  Edward  promised  to  give  to  the  Welsh 
people  as  prince  a  native  of  Wales  and  one  who  could  not  speak  a  word  of 
English.    He  then  presented  to  them  his  infant  son  who  had  just  been  born 
at  the  Welsh  castle  of  Carnarvon. 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH   NATION      221 

mainly  Celtic  and  lived  among  the  rugged  districts  of  the  north, 
and  the  Lowlanders,  who  were  partly  Teutonic,  like  the  north  of 
England  people,  partly  Celtic  invaders  from  Ireland.  A  long 
line  of  kings  had  ruled  over  these  various  elements  without  bring- 
ing them  together  very  successfully.  From  time  to  time  the 
Scottish  kings  had  paid  homage  to  the  English  kings,  acknowl- 
edging a  kind  of  supremacy  on  their  part,  but  the  English  kings 
had  not  interfered  in  any  way  with  the  internal  affairs  of  either 
the  Lowlands  or  the  Highlands. 

192.  The  Award  of  Norham The  ambition  of  Edward    I, 

however,  extended  so  far  as  to  plan  for  the  real  union  of  all 
the  island  of  Britain  ;  therefore,  when  the  inheritance  of  the  king- 
dom of  Scotland  descended  to  a  little  girl,  Edward  immediately 


Remains  of  Carnarvon  Castle,  Wales,  the  Birthplace  of  Edward  II 

arranged  for  her  marriage  to  his  eldest  son.  Unfortunately  the 
young  queen  of  Scotland  soon  died  and  there  was  no  unquestioned 
heir  to  the  throne.  Several  Scotch  nobles  were  descended  from 
the  royal  family  and  claimed  the  inheritance.  Edward  was  called 
upon  to  act  as  arbitrator.  In  1292,  therefore,  he  went  to  the 


222  A    SHORT    HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND 

castle  of  Norham  on  the  border  between  England  and  Scotland, 
attended  by  the  nobles  of  the  northern  counties  of  England,  to 
meet  representatives  of  the  nobility,  clergy,  and  commons  of  Scot- 
land and  to  render  his  decision  as  to  who  had  the  best  claim  to 
the  throne. 

Before  he  gave  his  award  he  demanded  that  the  Scotch  should 
all  acknowledge  his  feudal  superiority  over  Scotland  and  its  king. 
This  was  done  somewhat  reluctantly  by  the  Scotch  representatives 
and  claimants  for  the  crown. 

There  were  three  principal  competitors,  John  Baliol,  Robert 
Bruce,  and  John  Hastings,  each  of  them  descended  from  the  royal 
house  of  Scotland  by  the  female  line,  each  of  them  a  Lowland 
noble,  and  each  holding  estates  in  the  northern  part  of  England 
also.  Edward,  after  full  discussion  and  investigation  of  documents, 
gave  his  decision  in  favor  of  John  Baliol.  This  nobleman,  there- 
fore, was  acknowledged  by  the  Scotch  representatives,  received 
possession  of  all  the  Scotch  royal  castles,  and  again  did  homage 
and  swore  fealty  to  Edward  as  his  superior  lord.1 

A  vigorous  national  ruler  like  Edward  was  not  likely  to  allow 
his  supremacy  over  the  king  of  Scotland  to  remain  the  mere 
formality  it  had  previously  been.  According  to  his  view,  Baliol 
held  practically  the  same  position  toward  him  for  his  Scottish 
monarchy  as  he  did  for  the  various  lands  which  he  held  in  Eng- 
land. Scotland,  like  Wales,  was  looked  upon  by  Edward  as 
simply  a  feudal  lordship  held  by  one  of  his  barons,  just  as  the 
earl  of  Norfolk,  for  instance,  held  his  estates.  The  king  of  Eng- 
land was  supreme  over  them  all  alike.  The  Scottish  king  and 

1  The  words  of  BalioFs  oath  of  fealty  were  as  follows :  "  Hear  you  this, 
my  lord  Edward,  king  of  England  and  sovereign  lord  of  the  realm  of  Scot- 
land, that  I,  John  Baliol,  king  of  Scotland,  do  fealty  to  you  for  the  realm 
of  Scotland,  which  I  hold  and  claim  to  hold  of  you ;  that  I  will  be  faithful 
and  loyal  to  you,  and  faith  and  loyalty  will  bear  to  you  of  life  and  limb  and 
worldly  honor,  against  all  who  may  live  and  die  ;  and  loyally  I  will  acknowl- 
edge and  loyally  perform  the  services  that  are  due  to  you  for  the  aforesaid 
kingdom  of  Scotland.  So  help  me  God  and  these  holy  gospels." 


Scotland  in  the  Thirteenth  Century :  the  Highlands  and  Lowlands,  the 
Scottish  and  English  Marches,  Lothian,  and  the  Principal  Towns  and 

Castles 

223 


224 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


people,  on  the  other  hand,  like  the  Welsh,. had  been  practically 
independent  and  felt  themselves  to  be  a  separate  nation  from  the 
English. 

193.  The  Conquest  of  Scotland Naturally,  therefore,  disputes 

soon  arose,  and  within  a  short  time   the   Scots  and  their  king 
were  at  war  with  Edward.    They  were,  however,  no  match  for  the 

English  king  with  his  military 
ability  and  training,  the  veteran 
warriors  among  his  nobles,  and  the 
well-equipped  armies  he  was  able 
to  bring  into  Scotland.  The  Scotch 
king  was  defeated,  deposed,  and 
banished,  resistance  was  beaten 
down,  and  English  officials  were 
established  throughout  the  coun- 
try. Scotland  was  treated,  accord- 
ing to  Edward's  views  and  after  the 
example  of  Wales,  as  a  dependency, 
almost  as  a  part  of  England.  The 
crown  and  other  emblems  of  royalty 
were  taken  away  to  London  and  the 
"  stone  of  Scone,"  a  square  block 
of  stone  upon  which  the  Scottish 
kings  always  sat  to  be  crowned, 

was  carried  to  London  and  fastened  under  the  seat  of  the  English 

coronation  chair,  where  it  still  remains.1 

194.  William  Wallace  and  the  Wars  of  Scotch  Liberation.  — 
Scotland  was  temporarily  conquered,  but  resistance  showed  itself 

1  Many  old  traditions  gathered  around  this  stone,  among  them  one  that 
it  had  been  brought  to  Scotland  from  Ireland,  and  to  Ireland  from  Egypt  by  a 
certain  daughter  of  Pharaoh;  and  that  it  had  come  to  Egypt  from  Palestine, 
where  it  had  been  hallowed  by  being  the  stone  on  which  the  head  of  Jacob 
had  rested  when  he  saw  the  vision  of  the  angels  ascending  and  descending 
between  earth  and  heaven. 


English  Coronation  Chair 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     225 

whenever  Edward  or  an  overwhelming  English  force  was  not 
present.  One  of  the  principal  leaders  of  the  opposition  among 
the  mass  of  the  Scottish  people  was  William  .Wallace,  who  has 
stood  in  later  stories  as  the  representative  of  the  Scottish  struggle 
for  independence,  and  the  great  national  hero.  He  was  according 
to  all  traditions  a  bold,  chivalrous,  and  daring  warrior.  Most  of 
the  leaders  made  their  peace  by  submission  to  Edward.  Wallace 
kept  up  the  struggle,  was  successful  in  many  a  fight,  and  won 
castle  after  castle  from  its  English  garrison.  But  he  was  an  out- 
law, with  only  such  volunteers  as  he  could  gather  around  him, 
and  after  some  years,  in  1305,  he  was  captured,  taken  to  London, 
tried  for  treason,  and  executed. 

Yet  the  national  resistance  had  been  growing  steadily  ever  since 
Edward's  first  invasion,  and  notwithstanding  his  kingly  qualities 
a  permanent  conquest  of  Scotland  became  evidently  impossible. 
War  surged  to  and  fro  through  the  Lowlands  and  up  to  the  very 
entrance  to  the  Highlands,  continually  embittering  the  native 
feeling.  In  1306  Robert  Bruce,  a  grandson  of  one  of  the  earlier 
claimants  of  the  crown,  declared  himself  king,  and,  making  use  of 
the  growing  feeling  of  nationality,  called  all  classes  of  Scotsmen  to 
arms  for  a  last  great  struggle.  For  some  time  the  Scots  gained  but 
little.  Bruce  was  often  a  mere  fugitive  in  the  mountains,  though 
he  always  returned  to  the  attack.  Finally  the  tide  turned.  The 
Scots  had  no  longer  to  contend  with  the  warrior  and  statesman, 
King  Edward  I.  He  died  in  1307,  as  he  was  about  to  enter  Scot- 
land with  a  new  and  still  more  powerful  army.  With  his  last  breath 
he  enjoined  upon  his  son  and  successor,  Edward  II,  the  com- 
pletion of  the  conquest  of  Scotland.  Edward  II,  however,  was 
unwarlike  and  indolent,  and  followed  up  the  contest  with  little 
vigor  or  interest.  A  series  of  partial  successes  gave  the  Scots 
command  of  most  of  the  Lowland  cities,  castles,  and  fortresses, 
and  Bruce  finally  laid  close  siege  to  Stirling,  one  of  the  last  and 
strongest  of  the  English  strongholds.  The  English  brought  a 
fresh  army  into  Scotland  to  its  rescue,  and  in  1314,  near  Stirling 


226 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


Castle,  was  fought  the  decisive  battle  of  Bannockburn.  The  Scots, 
drawn  up  in  solid  squares  and  masses  of  men,  resisted  the  first 
attacks  of  the  English,  threw  them  into  confusion,  and  then  over-, 
whelmed  them  and  won  a  brilliant  victory.  Bruce  had  at  last 
succeeded  in  making  good  his  position  and  he  soon  obtained  the 
recognition  of  Scotland  as  a  kingdom  independent  of  England. 

The  feelings  of  hostility  engendered  by  this  contest  gave  rise 
afterward  to  almost  interminable  border  warfare  between  England 


and  Scotland.  Bodies  of 
raiders  continually  passed 
from  the  English  side  of  the 
border  over  into  Scotland,  or 
from  the  Scotch  side  over 
into  England,  burning  houses, 

destroying  crops,  seizing  cattle,  plundering  villages,  and  killing 
people.  The  plan  of  Edward  I  had  been  to  create  a  single, 
united,  well-governed  nation  including  the  whole  of  the  island  of 
Britain,  but  this  had  failed.  The  national  desire  of  the  Welsh 
and  Scotch  for  independence,  as  well  as  their  state  of  barbarism 
and  their  different  interests,  could  not  be  overcome  and  made  the 
plan  impracticable. 

When  Edward  I  died  in.  1307  he  was  sixty-nine  years  of  age, 
having  reigned  thirty-five  years.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  of 
English  kings  and,  notwithstanding  the  failure  of  his  "  imperial- 
istic "  plans,  he  left  a  deep  impression  upon  the  history  of  England. 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     227 

195.  Edward  II.  —  Edward   II   was,   on    the    other    hand,  of 
comparatively  insignificant  character  and  exercised  little  influence 
upon  history.      During  his  reign  of  twenty  years  he  was  alter- 
nately under  the  guidance  of  favorite  friends  and  ministers  and 
the  control  of  rebellious   parties   of  barons.      In    1310  a  great 
meeting  of  the  nobles  and  prelates,  much  like  the  gatherings  that 
forced  the  Great  Charter  on  King  John  in  1215  and  imposed  the 
Provisions  of  Oxford  on  Henry  III  in  1258,  forced  Edward  to  put 
the  work  of  reforming  the  government  into  the  hands  of  a  group 
of  twenty-one  nobles,  who  were  known  as  the  "Lords  Ordainers." 
The  Ordainers  drew  up  a  long  series   of  ordinances  introdu- 
cing various  reforms  and  banishing  the  king's  favorite  ministers. 
Edward's  efforts  for  the  rest  of  his  reign  were  largely  devoted  to 
freeing  himself  from  the  ordinances,  while  the  barons  repeatedly 
rose  in  rebellion  to  enforce  them. 

During  the  last  of  these  revolts,  which  occurred  in  1327  and  was 
directed  in  the  first  place  against  the  king's  favorites  rather  than 
against  the  king  himself,  Edward  was  captured  and  imprisoned. 
Under  the  influence  of  his  opponents  a  parliament  was  called 
and  a  bill  passed  declaring  the  king  incompetent  and  guilty  of 
many  offenses.  He  was  therefore  formally  declared  to  be  deposed 
from  the  throne.  He  died  soon  afterward,  having  doubtless  been 
murdered. 

196.  The  Minority  of  Edward  III.  —  Edward  III,  a  boy  thir- 
teen years  of  age,  was  placed  on  the  throne  when  his  father  was 
deposed.     During  his  minority  and  the  early  years  of  his  reign 
there  are  no  great  matters  to  chronicle.     But  beginning  with  the 
year  1337  a  series  of  events  of  much  greater  importance  took 
place,  which  will  be  described  in  the  succeeding  chapter. 

197.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1216  to  1337. — The  great 
permanent  change  which  occurred  during  the  period  included  m 
this  chapter  was  the  consolidation  of  the  English  people  into  one 
well-defined  race.     For  a  time  after  the  Norman  Conquest  there 
were  two  distinct  peoples  in  England,  —  English  and  Norman; 


228  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

but  the  process  of  union  by  intermarriage  began  early,  and  the 
distinction  between  the  races  was  gradually  broken  down.  Within 
a  hundred  years  of  the  Conquest  it  was  impossible  to  tell  whether 
a  man  was  an  Englishman  or  a  Norman.  All  men  except  the 
villeins,  who  were  mostly  pure  English,  were  .apt  to  be  part 
English,  part  Norman.  This  process  of  union  of  races  had  now 
become  complete. 

The  different  customs  of  government  of  Saxons  and  Normans 
were  also  coalescing  and  combining  to  form  new  national  insti- 
tutions. For  instance,  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  division  of  the  country 
into  shires  and  hundreds  and  the  new  Norman  and  Angevin  royal 
ministers  and  officials  were  combined  into  one.  new  system  of 
Exchequer  and  court  sessions.  Old  English  customs  and  the  new 
doctrines  of  the  royal  judges  were  combined  into  the  common 
law  of  England.  The  various  claims  of  the  nobles  and  local 
bodies  to  separate  customs  and  separate  rights  were  giving  way 
to  the  powers  of  the  king  and  of  the  one  central  government. 
The  old  position  of  the  king  as  elective  head  of  the  nation  and 
the  new  idea  of  the  king  as  feudal  lord  over  the  barons  were  com- 
bined into  the  limited  monarchy  of  Henry  III  and  the  Edwards. 
The  gradual  increase  of  the  power  of  the  Great  Council,  or  par- 
liament, marks  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  and  the  final  admission  of 
the  commons  in  1295  makes  that  date  one  of  the  most  important 
in  English  history.  Men  from  all  parts  of  England  and  from  all 
classes  of  the  people  now  met  almost  every  year  and  exercised 
a  strong  and  growing  influence  on  the  government. 

Likewise  during  this  period  a  national  form  of  architecture 
was  developed ;  the  English  language  had  gone  through  most 
of  its  changes  of  form  and  was  fast  displacing  French  and  Latin 
in  spoken  usage ;  and  the  two  great  universities  were  drawing 
students  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Therefore,  instead  of  different  races  with  different  languages, 
various  kinds  of  law,  and  various  kinds  of  courts,  the  English 
people  were  now  to  a  great  extent  one  united  nation  with  similar 


FORMATION  OF  A  UNITED  ENGLISH  NATION     229 

customs  and  a  single  government  representing  the  whole  people. 
This  national  union  was  of  course  new  as  yet,  but  it  was  real. 
England  was  more  united,  more  truly  a  nation,  than  any  other 
country  of  Europe  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  iii,  sects.  4-7 ;  chap.  iv. 
This  portion  of  Green's  work  is  particularly  valuable.  RICHARDSON,  The 
National  Movement  in  the  Reign  of  Henry  III,  and  PROTHERO,  Simon  de 
Montfort,  are  very  good  accounts  of  the  early  part  of  this  period.  Of 
the  latter  part,  TOUT,  Edward  I  (Twelve  English  Statesmen),  and  JENKS, 
Edward  I  (Heroes  of  the  Nations),  give  good  accounts.  The  conditions 
of  life  in  town  and  country  can  be  read  in  CHEYNEY,  Industrial  History ', 
chaps,  ii  and  iii.  The  rise  of  the  friars  and  the  condition  of  the  church 
can  be  read  in  full  form  in  STEPHENS,  The  English  Church,  io66-i2j2, 
or  in  LEA,  History  of  the  Inquisition,  Vol.  I,  or  in  brief  form  in  JESSOPP, 
Coming  of  the  Friars,  and  Other  Essays,  essay  i. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  MATTHEW  PARIS,  Chronicle  (Bonn's  Library). 
A  number  of  extracts  from  that  chronicle  are  given  in  KENDALL,  Source- 
Book,  No.  25,  and  COLBY,  Selections  from  the  Sources,  No.  31.  Documents 
concerning  the  summoning  of  parliament  are  in  Translations  and  Reprints, 
Vol.  I,  No.  6 ;  concerning  towns  and  gilds,  in  Vol.  II,  No.  4 ;  and  concerning 
rural  life,  in  Vol.  Ill,  No.  5.  HUTTON,  Misrule  of  Henry  III  (English 
History  from  Contemporary  Sources),  and  FRAZER,  English  History  from 
Original  Sources,  contain  much  scattered  material. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  JANE  PORTER,  The  Scottish  Chiefs,  is  a  spirited 
and  interesting  story  of  the  time  of  the  Scottish  wars,  but  its  characters  of 
Wallace  and  other  heroes  are  quite  imaginary.  PALGRAVE,  The  Merchant 
and  the  Friar,  although  in  the  form  of  a  story,  is  almost  all  drawn  from 
contemporary  records.  MARLOWE,  Edward  II,  is  a  tragedy  written  long 
afterwards  but  with  a  plot  drawn  from  trustworthy  chronicles. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  The  Origin  of  Parliament,  MONTAGUE,  English 
Constitutional  History,  pp.  58-81 ;  (2)  Roger  Bacon,  COLBY,  Selections  from 
the  Sources  of  English  History,  No.  32 ;  (3)  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic, 
ROBINSON,  History  of  Western  Europe,  pp.  225-232  ;  (4)  the  Expulsion  of 
the  Jews,  ABRAHAMS,  The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England;  (5)  Archi- 
tecture and  Art,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  I,  pp.  415-427;  (6)  Univer- 
sities, ibid.,  pp.  429-440 ;  (7)  Fairs,  ibid.,  pp.  460-470 ;  (8)  a  Mediaeval 
Village,  JESSOPP,  Coming  of  the  Friars,  and  Other  Essays,  essay  ii. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE  FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR 
1338-1399 

198.  Possessions  of  the  English  Kings  in  France.  —  National 
unity  had  been  growing  in  France  as  in  England  during  the 
thirteenth  century,  although  more  slowly  and  against  greater 
obstacles.  One  of  the  results  of  this  growth  was  to  make  the  pos- 
session of  the  southern  provinces  of  France  by  the  English  king 
seem  unjust  to  the  French  rulers.  The  English  had  of  course  lost 
Normandy  and  the  central  French  provinces,  but  the  territories 
which  they  still  held  in  the  southwest  of  France  made  up  at  least 
a  quarter  of  that  country.  The  two  most  important  of  the  prov- 
inces held  by  them  were  Guienne  and  Gascony,  which  together 
with  some  smaller  provinces  of  the  southwest  were  all  frequently 
spoken  of  together  as  Aquitaine.  The  English  king  held  them 
only  as  a  vassal  of  the  French  king,  and  each  successive  sovereign 
from  Henry  II  to  Edward  III  had  performed  homage  to  the  king 
of  France  for  them.  But  they  did  it  reluctantly.  It  was  almost 
too  much  to  expect  an  English  king,  used  to  being  supreme  in  his 
island  dominions,  to  kneel  and  in  the  forms  of  feudal  humility 
promise  to  be  the  man  of  another  ruler.  He  would  naturally  con- 
sider his  dominions  on  one  side  of  the  Channel  much  the  same  as 
those  on  the  other.  The  French  kings,  on  the  other  hand,  could 
not  abate  their  claims.  They  must  even  take  advantage  of  every 
excuse  to  extend  them,  because  the  English  holdings  in  France 
stood  in  the  way  of  their  national  unity.  An  irreconcilable  con- 
flict was  therefore  impending  over  the  two  countries  so  long  as  the 
English  continued  to  hold  Aquitaine. 

230 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     231 

199.  New  Causes  of  Conflict.  — During  the  reigns  of  the  three 
Edwards  several  subordinate  causes  of  conflict  were  becoming 
stronger.  First,  the  French  had  given  constant  help  in  money, 
men,  vessels,  and  protection  to  the  Scots  in  their  wars  against  the 
English.  Secondly,  the  sailors  of  the  growing  fishing  and  trading 
towns  on  the  English  side  of  the  Channel  were  in  constant  petty 
warfare  with  those  of  similar  towns  on  the  French  coast.  The 
kings  of  England  and  France  were  not  strong  enough  to  keep 
their  own  subjects  in  order  and  each  blamed  the  other  for  these 
attacks  in  time  of  peace.  Thirdly,  the  interests  of  England  and 
France  clashed  in  Flanders.  Flanders  was  under  the  dominion 
of  a  count  who  was  a  vassal  of  the  king  of  France ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  all  its  trade  interests  and  connections  were  with  Eng- 
land, for  the  wool  used  by  the  weavers  in  their  manufactures  was 
imported  from  England  and  many  of  the  articles  manufactured 
in  Flanders  were  exported  to  England.  It  was  to  the  interest 
of  the  Flemings  and  the  English  to  keep  this  trade  open,  but  the 
French  often  closed  it. 

Edward  III  had  also  a  more  personal  dispute  with  the  king 
of  France.  This  was  his  claim  to  the  inheritance  of  the  French 
crown.  His  mother  Isabella  was  the  daughter  of  the  French  king 
Philip  IV,  Three  brothers  of  Isabella  had  reigned  successively 
but  died  leaving  only  daughters.  Edward  might  therefore  have 
hoped  to  inherit  the  French  crown  through  his  mother.1  But  the 
feeling  in  France  against  the  rule  of  a  foreigner,  especially  if  the 

1  Edward's  claim  to  the  inheritance  of  the  French  crown  may  be  shown 
by  the  following  genealogy  of  the  French  kings. 

Philip  III,  1270-1285 


Philip  IV,  1285-1314 

( 

"harles  of  Valois 
| 
Philip  VI, 
1328-1350 

Louis  X, 
1314-1316, 
died  without 
a  son 

Philip  V, 
1316-1322, 
died  without 
a  son 

Charles  IV, 
1322-1328, 
died  without 
a  son 

Isabella, 
married  Edward  II 
of  England 

Edward  III  of 
England 

232 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


foreigner  were  an  Englishman,  was  very  strong.  It  was  therefore 
declared  by  the  French  nobles  and  lawyers  to  be  a  principle  of 
French  law  that  women  could  not  inherit  the  throne,  and  conse- 


werp- 

•Dixmuide  "Ghent 
Ypres  Brussels 

Poperinghe-  '  'oudenarde 


Lille*       •  Tournai 


Arras 


The  Principal  Wool-Raising  Districts  of  England  and  Wool- 
Manufacturing  Towns  of  Flanders  and  Brabant 

quently  could  not  transmit  the  inheritance  of  it  to  a  son.  This 
custom  was  known  as  the  "  Salic  Law,"  from  an  obscure  provision 
of  the  code  of  the  old  Salian  Franks  excluding  women  from  the 
inheritance  of  land.  From  these  causes  of  conflict  the  two 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     233 


nations,  France  and  England,  were  gradually  becoming  embittered 
against  one  another,  and  when  war  should  arrive  it  would  evi- 
dently Be  a  real  national  conflict.  It  would  be  no  mere  feudal 
struggle  between  the  English  king  and  his  overlord,  the  king  of 
France,  or  a  border  war,  such  as  had  often  occurred  before,  con- 
cerning the  possession  of  some  petty  castle,  but  a  great  national 
struggle. 

200.  Outbreak  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  —  In  1328,  when  the 
last  of  the  sons  of  Philip  IV  died,  a  cousin,  Philip,  count  of 
Valois,  was  declared  to  be  king  of  France,  and  was  accepted  by 
the  whole  French  nation.  After  some 
hesitation  Edward  also  acknowledged 
him  and  did  homage  to  him  for  his 
French  provinces,  although  with  some 
reservations.  For  almost  ten  years,  dur- 
ing Edward's  minority,  there  was  little 
more  than  a  series  of  disputes  between 
the  two  governments,  but  in  1337 
Edward  began  to  make  preparations  for  The  English  Royal  Arms 
war  and  laid  open  claim  to  the  throne 
of  France.  England  had  stood  with  her 
back  to  the  continent  for  more  than  a 
century  while  struggles  between  king  and 


as  adopted  by  Edward  III 
in  1338  (the  French 
fleur-de-lis  quartered  with 
the  English  lions) l 


barons,  and  the  conquests  of  Wales  and  Scotland,  had  absorbed 
the  great  interest  of  the  king  and  the  people.  Now,  however,  an 
apparently  endless  war  with  France  brought  England  into  much 
closer  intercourse  with  the  rest  of  Europe.  "  The  Hundred  Years' 
War,"  as  it  came  to  be  called,  may  therefore  be  taken  as  the 
principal  thread  of  the  history  of  the  time. 

Edward   and   his   ministers   made   every  effort   to  obtain   the 

approval  and  interest  of  all  the  people  in  the  war,  and  found 

little  difficulty  in  doing  so.     The  circumstances  that  brought  on 

the  war  were  explained  by  the  king's  ministers  in  parliament, 

1  See  royal  arms  on  p.  173. 


234  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

by  the  sheriffs  in  the  county  courts,  and  by  the  clergy  in  the 
churches.  Taxes  were  readily  granted.  Ambassadors  were  sent 
over  to  the  continent  to  make  alliances  with  Flanders  and  with 
the  nobles  great  and  small  along  the  eastern  borders  of  France. 

Edward  himself  went  over  to  the  Netherlands  with  an  army  in 
the  summer  of  1338,  and  a  year  afterwards  invaded  France. 
There  was  some  fighting  and  much  plundering,  but  little  was 
really  accomplished  for  several  years.  The  methods  of  warfare 
at  this  time  consisted  more  in  the  devastation  of  an  opponent's 
territory  than  in  actual  fighting.  English  marauding  expeditions 
pressed  far  into  the  heart  of  France,  burning  towns  and  villages, 
driving  off  flocks  of  sheep  and  cattle,  destroying  crops  of  grain, 
cutting  down  orchards,  and  leaving  desolate  behind  them  whole 
districts  formerly  fertile,  prosperous,  and  thickly  inhabited.  The 
French  retaliated  by  sending  fleets  to  ravage  and  burn  the  Eng- 
lish coast  towns  along  the  Channel,  pillaging  their  shops  and 
killing  and  maltreating  the  people. 

201.  The  Battles  of  Sluys  and  Crecy.  —  Occasionally,  however, 
serious  battles  occurred.  After  two  years  Edward  made  a  visit 
to  England  and  on  his  return,  with  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  and 
sixty  vessels  gathered  from  the  seaport  towns  of  the  southern 
and  eastern  coasts,  met  a  great  French  fleet  in  the  harbor  of 
Sluys  on  the  Flemish  coast.  A  long  and  bitter  struggle  took 
place.  The  English  weapons  and  plan  of  attack  proved  their 
superiority,  most  of  the  French  vessels  were  captured,  their 
crews  slain  or  driven  into  the  water,  and  a  proof  given  of  the 
English  national  capacity  for  sea  warfare. 

In  1346  there  was  an  even  more  brilliant  victory  on  the  land. 
Edward  had  taken  a  small  but  well-equipped  army  over  to 
France,  and  had  entered  upon  a  reckless  and  brutal  plundering 
and  burning  campaign  through  the  duchy  of  Normandy.  The 
French  king  with  a  vastly  larger  army  at  last  intercepted  his 
march  and  forced  him  to  give  battle.  King  Edward  took  his 
station  in  a  position  where  the  flanks  and  rear  of  his  little  army 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED   YEARS'  WAR     235 

were  protected  by  woods  and  the  village  of  Crecy,  and  where  the 
French  would  have  to  charge  up  the  rising  ground  in  front.  The 
French  army  was  large  but  poorly  disciplined  and  disorderly. 
A  thunder  shower  swept  over  the  opposing  armies,  wetting  the 
bow-strings  of  the  Genoese  crossbowmen  who  made  up  the 
advance  guard  of  the  French,  but  leaving  unhurt  the  strings  of 
the  long-bows  which  the  English  archers  carried  and  which  they 
kept  in  their  cases  until  the  storm  was  over.  The  afternoon 
sun  also  shone  in  the  faces  of  the  French  but  on  the  backs 
of  the  English.  Under  these  circumstances  the  French  were 
poorly  fitted  to  resist  the  shower  of  arrows  which  the  English 
archers  poured  into  their  ranks  as  they  approached.  When  the 
crossbowmen  wavered,  the  fiery  French  knights  dashed  among 
and  over  them  in  their  efforts  to  reach  the  English,  till  much  of 
the  French  army  was  a  struggling  mass  into  which  the  English 
could  pour  a  steady  and  destructive  fire.  Even  when  it  came  to 
hand-to-hand  fighting,  the  position  and  discipline  of  the  English 
gave  them  success.  Finally  they  were  able  to  press  down  the 
hill  and  drive  the  great  French  army  into  a  confused  flight.  It 
was  an  overwhelming  victory  for  English  good  generalship,  good 
discipline,  and  good  weapons,  over  the  poor  military  organization, 
vainglorious  bravery,  and  insubordination  of  the  French. 

202.  The  English  Long-bow.  —  In  all  the  early  contests  of 
the  Hundred  Years'  War  the  superiority  of  the  English  national 
weapon,  the  long-bow,  had  made  itself  manifest.  This  form  of 
the  bow,  five  feet  or  more  long,  aimed  from  the  eye  with  the 
arm  above  the  shoulder,1  had  come  into  use  in  England  during 
the  preceding  century  and  had  become  the  popular  weapon  for 
use  in  hunting,  in  shooting  at  the  target,  and  in  actual  warfare. 
Boys  learned  to  use  it  from  their  earliest  years  and  attained 
wonderful  skill  with  it.  It  could  be  shot  with  great  accuracy 
of  aim  and  for  a  long  range,  but  its  greatest  value  in  warfare 

1  The  bow  of  earlier  times  was  much  shorter  and  was  aimed  from  below 
the  shoulder.  See  illustration  of  Norman  archers  on  p.  97. 


236 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND 


was  its  rapidity  of  firing.  While  the  crossbow  had  to  be 
laboriously  reversed  and  wound  up  after  each  discharge,  the 
long-bow  could  be  held  in  the  hand  as  the  archer  with  a  single 
motion  picked  an  arrow  from  a  sheaf  thrown  on  the  ground  at 
his  feet  or  from  a  quiver  at  his  side,  fitted  it  into  the  string, 
drew  the  bow,  and  discharged  it  again.  The  rapid,  galling, 
unending  pour  of  the  English  arrows,  "  like  snowflakes,"  is  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  all  their  battles  and  settled  the  fate  of 

many  of  them  in  favor 
of  the  side  which  had 
the  long-bow.  At 
Sluys  it  was  concen- 
trated from  the  ves- 
sels of  the  English 
line  upon  the  decks 
of  the  French  vessels 
till  they  were  cleared 
so  that  English  men 
at  arms  might  board 
them.  At  Crecy  it 
Long-Bows  and  Crossbows  in  a  Battle  of  the  was  the  flight  of  ar- 
Hundred  Years'  War  (from  a  manuscript  of  rows  that  made  the 
the  fifteenth  century) 


caydry  charge  Qf  ^ 

French  more  and  more  slow  and  disorderly  till  it  came  to  a  stop 
and  left  them  at  the  mercy  of  the  English  attack.  In  almost 
every  recorded  battle  of  this  time  the  long-bow  played  a  similar 
part.  It  is  no  wonder  that  it  became  an  object  of  pride  and 
romance.  "The  cloth-yard  shaft,"  "the  crooked  stick  and  the 
gray  goose  wing,"  and  other  expressions  for  the  bow  and  arrow 
became  familiar  in  song  and  story. 

203.  The  Organization  of  the  English  Army.  —  The  superiority 
of  the  English  in  a  military  way  did  not  lie  wholly  in  their  weapons. 
The  armies  which  were  taken  to  the  continent  were  comparatively 
small,  but  they  were  compact  and  well  organized.  All  the  troops 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     237 

were  paid  regular  wages.  A  knight  received  two  shillings  a  day, 
an  esquire  one  shilling,  an  ordinary  archer  threepence.  Usual 
wages  for  workmen  in  the  country  were  at  that  time  from  one  to 
two  pence  a  day,  so  the  archers  who  took  service  in  the  army 
were  paid  almost  twice  the  usual  wages,  besides  what  they  might 
hope  to  get  as  booty.  They  were  also  volunteers,  —  they  joined 
the  king's  forces  at  their  own  will.  Many  of  them  were  in  uni- 
form and  served  under  the  noblemen  with  whom  they  had  volun- 
teered. The  government  went  to  great  labor  to  provide  proper 
equipment ;  bows,  sheaves  of  arrows,  food,  and  drink  being  con- 
tinually sought  by  the  king's  officers.  The  armies  were  much 
more  like  modern  armies  than  any  that  had  fought  before  in 
either  England  or  France  since  the  time  of  the  Roman  legions. 
It  was  an  expensive  force,  but  so  long  as  the  English  treasury 
could  stand  the  strain  it  was  far  more  effective  than  the  armies 
which  it  met. 

204.  The  Capture  of  Calais.  —  After  the  battle  of  Crecy  the 
English  continued  their  retreat  to  the  coast.  There  they  laid 
siege  to  the  town  of  Calais,  whose  harbor  had  long  been  a  retreat 
from  which  French  sailors  had  come  out  to  attack  English  vessels 
and  coast  towns.  During  the  early  campaigns  the  English  army 
had  almost  invariably  failed  to  capture  French  towns.  They  had 
been  forced  to  retreat  from  before  city  walls  and  betake  themselves 
to  the  miserable  business  of  plundering  and  burning  the  villages 
and  open  country  while  awaiting  a  pitched  battle.  Now,  however, 
the  good  organization  and  equipment  of  the  English  army  made 
it  possible  to  keep  up  a  long  siege,  and  after  almost  a  year  of 
close  investment  Calais  surrendered.  Edward  had  a  long  account 
against  the  townsmen  and  garrison  of  Calais,  not  only  for  their 
vigorous  resistance  to  his  siege,  but  for  their  piracies  of  earlier 
times.  He  was  therefore  inclined  to  impose  harsh  terms  of  sur- 
render. The  most  that  he  could  be  prevailed  on  to  grant  was 
that  all  should  be  given  their  lives  if  six  of  the  principal  citizens 
would  appear  before  him  bareheaded  and  barefooted,  with  ropes 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


around  their  necks,  bringing  the  keys  of  Calais.  Eustace  de  St. 
Pierre  and  five  others  volunteered  to  sacrifice  themselves  for  their 
fellow-citizens.  Although  they  delivered  the  keys  kneeling  and 
begging  for  mercy,  Edward  at  first  ordered  them  to  instant  exe- 
cution. The  expostulations  of  his  nobles  and  the  prayers  of 
Queen  Philippa,  who  was  in  the  camp,  prevailed  upon  him,  how- 
ever, to  remove  the  sentence  and  set  the  prisoners  at  liberty. 
The  French  were  all  expelled  from  Calais  and  the  town  thrown 

open  to  English  settlers.  It  remained 
practically  an  English  city  for  more 
than  two  hundred  years.  By  the  close 
of  1347,  the  year  in  which  Calais  was 
captured,  both  the  English  and  French 
were  nearly  exhausted,  so  a  truce  was 
agreed  upon  which  with  occasional  in- 
terruptions lasted  for  several  years. 

205.  The  Black  Prince.  —  Part  of  the 
fighting  at  Crecy  and  before  Calais  had 
been  under  the  leadership  of  the  king's 
eldest  son,  Edward,  then  a  boy  of  fif- 
teen years  and  commonly  known  as  the 
"Black  Prince,"  from  the  color  of  the 
armor  which  he  habitually  wore.  He 
became  more  and  more  prominent  as 
the  war  continued,  fighting  beside  his 


The  Black  Prince  (from  the 
effigy  on  his  tomb  in  Can- 
terbury Cathedral) 


father  in  hand-to-hand  battles  on  sea  and  land,  leading  successful 
ravaging  expeditions  through  the  heart  of  France,  and  contending 
in  tournaments  during  the  short  periods  when  there  was  no  actual 
warfare  in  progress.  He  was  passionately  fond  of  fighting,  brave, 
and  venturesome,  yet  skillful  as  a  general.  He  was  courteous  and 
kind,  at  least  to  men  and  women  of  the  noble  class,  whether  they 
were  his  own  companions  in  arms  or  his  defeated  enemies.  He 
fully  satisfied  the  ideal  of  a  chivalrous  knight  as  that  ideal  was 
held  at  the  time. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     239 

206.  Knighthood. — The  fourteenth  century  was  the  golden 
age  of  chivalry.  The  word  "  chivalry  "  is  somewhat  vague  in 
meaning  and  belongs  perhaps  to  romance  rather  than  to  sober 
history.  It  is  nevertheless  true  that  in  the  later  middle  ages  a 
group  of  ideals  and  practices  grew  up  among  knights  and  nobles 
which  influenced  their  actions  and  feelings  and  did  much  to 
soften  the  repulsiveness  of  an  age  filled  with  brutality. 

A  young  man  born  from  the  class  of  feudal  landholders  was 
expected  to  serve  for  some  years  as  page  to  a  nobleman,  knight, 
or  noble  lady,  learning  to  wait  at  table,  to  ride,  to  use  weapons, 
to  play  music,  and  to  have  good  manners.  Next  he  acted  as 
squire  or  attendant  on  a  knight  till  he  had  obtained  practice  in 
the  tournament,  in  war,  and  in  the  ways  of  knighthood,  and  had 
come  fully  to  man's  age.  He  might  then  hope  for  an  opportu- 
nity, seldom  long  lacking,  to  show  his  bravery  and  skill  in  war, 
when  perhaps  his  feudal  lord  or  some  other  knight  would  dub 
him  knight  on  the  field  of  battle.  Often,  however,  knighting  was 
a  matter  of  more  ceremony  than  this.  A  festival  was  made  of 
the  occasion  and  a  sword  was  girded  upon  him ;  he  received 
the  accolade,  or  stroke  with  a  sword  on  the  back,  head,  or  neck, 
and  then  leaped  upon  his  horse  and  rode  away  to  show  his  skill 
in  horsemanship  or  in  arms.  Religious  services  accompanied 
the  ceremony,  the  arms  of  the  new  knight  were  solemnly  blessed, 
and  sometimes  the  candidate  even  fasted  all  night,  watching  in 
the  church,  then  bathed,  attended  mass,  and  took  an  oath  to  fulfill 
all  knightly  duties.  All  present  took  part  in  girding  on  his  armor 
and  became  witnesses  of  his  oaths.  To  become  a  knight  thus 
required  considerable  means,  and  many  men  of  good  birth  never 
passed  from  the  rank  of  squire  to  that  of  knight. 

The  more  highborn  knights,  after  the  time  of  the  First  Crusade, 
wore  special  emblems  and  mottoes  on  their  shields,  banners,  or 
robes,  and  the  science  of  heraldry  grew  up,  of  which  these  coats 
of  arms  were  the  subject.  Two  or  three  orders  of  knights  who 
were  also  monks  were  founded  in  the  twelfth  century,  the  most 


240  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

famous  of  which  were  the  Knights  Templars  and  the  Knights 
Hospitallers.  Some  knights  traveled  from  land  to  land  looking 
for  adventures.  These  were  known  as  "  knights-errant." 

207.  Rules  of  Chivalry.  —  There  were  certain  rules  of  courage, 
faithfulness  to  one's  lord,  honorable  treatment  of  enemies,  respect 
for  ladies,  and  religious  devotion  which  were  supposed  to  be  known 
and  practiced  by  every  squire  or  knight.  A  good  knight  should 
be  brave,  truthful,  and  generous.1  He  should  be  ready  to  fight 
at  any  time  and  should  always  be  in  love  with  at  least  one  lady. 
The  rules  and  customs  of  chivalry  were  repeated  in  poetry  and 
romance  till  they  became  familiar  throughout  all  Europe.  The 
fame  of  many  knights  and  nobles  celebrated  in  the  middle  ages 
was  founded  on  their  perfect  observance  of  these  rules. 

Many  of  the  ideals  of  chivalry  were  high.  Much  of  its  practice 
and  some  of  its  ideals,  on  the  other  hand,  were  gross  and  brutal. 
None  of  its  rules  were  considered  to  apply  to  any  one  not  of  the 
knightly  class.  It  glorified  fighting  for  its  own  sake  and  it  con- 
doned many  forms  of  immorality.  Above  all,  chivalry  was  hollow. 
It  was  largely  pretense,  —  a  fashionable  form  of  speech  rather  than 
of  real  feeling  or  of  real  action. 

Yet  in  the  fourteenth  century  there  was  a  great  deal  of  brave 
fighting,  much  gorgeous  ceremonial,  some  good  romantic  litera- 
ture, and  much  show,  at  least,  of  devotion  of  men  to  their  wives, 
ladyloves,  or  mistresses.  Much  of  this  can  fairly  enough  be 
credited  to  the  rules  of  chivalry. 

At  the  court  of  Edward  III,  and  above  all  in  the  person  and 
among  the  followers  of  the  Black  Prince,  it  reached  its  height 
in  England.  In  1344,  for  instance,  the  king  held  a  great  tourna- 
ment at  Windsor  to  which  knights  from  all  Europe  were  invited, 
and  which  he  called,  in  remembrance  of  King  Arthur,  a  "  Round 

1  See  the  description  of  Chaucer's  knight  on  page  258,  and,  further, 

He  never  yet  no  vileinye  ne  sayde, 
.In  al  his  lyf,  unto  no  maner  wight. 
He  was  a  verray  parfit  gentil  knight. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     241 

Table."  About  1346  Edward  founded  the  famous  "Order  of  the 
Garter,"  a  body  of  knights  which  still  continues  as  one  of  the  old- 
est and  most  honored  knightly  orders  of  Europe.  Tournaments 
were  a  favorite  pastime  of  this  period  and  a  frequent  amusement 
of  the  king  and  his  courtiers.  In  the  narrative  of  Froissart,  the 
chronicler  who  has  most  fully  described  the  events  of  this  period, 
it  is  this  knightly,  chivalrous  side  of  life  that  is  especially  displayed. 

208.  The  Battle  of  Poitiers Chivalry,  however,  lost  rather 

than  won  the  great  battles  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.    The  reck- 
less, unrestrained  desire  of  the  French  nobles  to  get  into  personal 
combat  with  their  enemies  was  responsible  for  most  of  the  defeats 
which  the  French  army  suffered.      The   most  striking  instance 
of  this  was  in  the  battle  of  Poitiers,  fought  in  1356.     Upon  the 
renewal  of  fighting  after  the  last  truce,  the  Black  Prince  led  an 
English  and  Aquitanian  army  from  Guienne  northward  through 
the  heart  of  France,  pillaging  a  part  of  the  country  not  before 
reached  by  the  war.     The  French  king  formed  an  army  many 
times  larger  than  that  of  the  English,  and  succeeded  in  throwing 
himself  in  the  way  of  their  retreat.     The  English  were  in  such  a 
hopeless  position  that  they  were  willing  to  retire  on  almost  any 
terms  they  could  get,  but  the  desire  for  military  glory  on  the  part 
of  the  French  nobles  prevented  them  from  accepting  the  English 
offers  without  having  the  pleasure  of  a  battle.     The  same  feeling 
led  them  into  a  reckless  disregard  of  the  advantages  of  their  posi- 
tion and  numbers,  and  the  little  English  army  under  the  Black 
Prince  again  won  an  overwhelming  victory.    The  king  of  France, 
his  son,  and  a  great  number  of  the  highest  nobles  of  France  were 
taken  prisoners,  while  many  more  were  left  dead  upon  the  field. 
The  king,   the  dauphin,  and  a  long  list  of  dukes,  counts,  and 
gentlemen  were  carried  away  to  England,  where  they  were  held 
for  ransom. 

209.  Peace  of  Bretigny. — After  two  or  three  more  years  of 
alternate  truce  and  fighting,  a  peace  was  agreed  upon  at  Bretigny, 
in  1360,  between  the  English  and  the  French  governments,  which, 


242  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

it  was  hoped,  would  close  the  war.  Edward  III  agreed  to  give 
up  his  recent  claim  to  the  French  throne  and  the  older  claims  to 
Normandy,  Anjou,  and  the  other  northern  provinces.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  southern  provinces  were  to  be  separated  from  France 
altogether  and  handed  over  to  the  English  king.  No  oath  of 
fealty  or  homage  was  to  be  any  longer  due  the  French  crown. 
Calais  also  was  to  be  left  to  the  English.  A  large  ransom  was  to 
be  paid  by  the  French  for  the  release  of  their  captured  king,  and 
hostages  were  to  be  given  until  this  sum  was  paid.  The  southern 
provinces  which  were  thus  surrendered  to  the  English  were  made 
into  a  separate  principality  by  King  Edward  and  given,  under  the 
name  of  the  duchy  of  Aquitaine,  to  his  son,  the  Black  Prince. 

210.  Statutes  of  Provisors  and  Praemunire.  —  From  the  middle 
to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  a  number  of  laws  were  passed 
which  mark  another  of  the  frequent  conflicts  with  the  papacy. 
For  some  time  the  pope  had  been  extending  his  claim  to  the 
right  of  appointment  of  church  officials  in  the  various  countries 
of  Europe.  In  England  a  parish  priest  was  usually  appointed  by 
the  lord  of  the  manor  in  which  the  parish  church  lay,  a  bishop 
was  elected  by  the  canons  of  his  cathedral,  and  other  church 
officials  were  appointed  by  the  king,  the  bishops,  or  the  heirs  of 
those  who  had  originally  endowed  their  benefices.1  The  pope 
by  his  supr.eme  authority  frequently  gave  "  provisions,"  that  is, 
direct  grants  of  appointment  to  such  positions,  to  persons  whom 
he  wished  to  favor  or  who  sought  such  appointments  from  him. 
Persons  who  held  provisions  from  the  pope  were  called  "pro- 
visors  of  benefices."  Papal  provisions  were  always  unpopular 
in  England.  They  took  away  from  Englishmen  the  right  of  making 
these  appointments  ;  they  were  frequently  given  to  foreigners  who 
either  did  not  come  to  England  at  all  or  could  not  understand 
the  language  of  the  people  when  they  did  come  ;  they  caused  the 
carrying  away  of  much  money  that  should  have  remained  in 

1  Benefice  means  a  position  in  the  church  producing  an  income,  such  as 
that  of  cathedral  canon,  parish  priest,  or  nobleman's  chaplain. 


TREATY  OF 

BRETIGNY 

1360 

0        20       40        60        80 

Scale  of  Miles 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     243 

England.  This  opposition  became  still  greater  when  the  long  war 
began,  for  the  popes  of  the  period  were  all  Frenchmen,  living  at 
Avignon,  and  much  under  the  influence  of  the  French  crown. 

As  a  result,  in  1342,  the  king  forbade  any  one  to  bring  into 
England  provisions  for  benefices,  and  annulled  all  those  which 
had  recently  been  given.  In  1351  the  matter  was  brought  into 
parliament,  and  the  first  "  Statute  of  Provisors  "  prohibited  the 
practice,  declaring  that  all  rights  of  election  or  appointment  in 
England  should  remain  in  the  free  possession  of  their  ancient 
claimants.  This  law  and  a  number  of  others  which  followed  it 
down  to  1390  were  poorly  enforced.  One  reason  for  this  was  that 
disputes  on  such  questions  were  apt  to  be  brought  into  church 
courts,  where  decisions  were  naturally  given  in  favor  of  the  pope's 
appointee.  To  prevent  this  last  practice  a  "Statute  of  Prae- 
munire"1  was  passed  in  1353  and  another  in  1393,  forbidding 
appeals  in  such  cases  to  the  church  courts  and  making  it  an 
offense  punishable  by  loss  of  life  and  property  for  any  one  in 
England  to  act  under  authority  obtained  from  the  pope  except 
with  the  king's  consent. 

211.  The  Black  Death. — Just  after  the  capture  of  Calais  a 
terrible  and  widespread  calamity  fell  upon  England,  as  it  did 
indeed  upon  all  Europe.  This  was  a  series  of  attacks  of  a  new 
pestilence,  or  epidemic,  beginning  in  the  year  1348,  increasing  in 
violence  in  1349,  and  dying  out  in  1350,  but  visiting  the  country 
from  time  to  time  afterward.  This  disease  was  the  bubonic  plague, 
and  this  first  and  most  destructive  visitation  is  usually  known  as 
the  "  Black  Death."  From  one  town,  monastery,  or  country  dis- 
trict to  another  throughout  England  the  disease  spread  rapidly. 
Far  the  greater  number  of  those  attacked  by  it  died,  often  with 
terrible  suddenness.  It  has  been  carefully  estimated  that  instead 
of  about  one  person  dying  out  of  twenty,  as  would  be  the  rate  in 
an  ordinary  year,  one  of  every  two  died  during  this  epidemic. 

1  Praemunire,  to  warn  beforehand,  is  the  first  word  of  the  writ  by  which 
this  law  was  to  be  carried  out. 


244  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  plague  seldom  lasted  more  than  a  year  in  any  one  locality. 
Thus  half  of  the  population,  including  members  of  the  royal  fam- 
ily, of  the  high  nobility  and  clergy,  as  well  as  of  the  middle  and 
lower  classes,  were  swept  away.  Such  a  sudden  and  great  decrease 
in  population  brought  about  many  changes.  So  many  of  the 
clergy  died  that  their  places  had  to  be  filled  with  men  less  care- 
fully trained  and  chosen ;  the  monasteries,  because  of  the  loss  of 
tenants  on  their  lands,  became  poorer  and  able  to  support  fewer 
inmates ;  fewer  students  went  to  the  universities,  and  much  of  the 
building  and  enlargement  of  churches  ceased  for  a  time. 

212.  The  Statutes  of  Laborers.  —  But  the  most  distinct  effect 
was  on  the  position  of  the  laboring  classes,  especially  those  in  the 
country  districts.  As  the  demesne  lands  were  still  to  be  culti- 
vated, and  as  the  number  of  the  population  who  were  available  to 
work  upon  them  was  much  diminished,  laborers  were  of  course  in 
great  demand.  Naturally  those  who  survived  asked  higher  rates 
of  wages  for  their  work,  and  the  employers  in  their  need  for  work- 
men felt  themselves  bound  to  pay  the  higher  wages  demanded. 
The  king,  however,  issued  a  proclamation,  which  was  followed  up, 
when  parliament  next  met  in  135 1,  by  a  regular  statute,  forbidding 
laborers  to  ask  any  more  for  their  services  than  the  customary 
wages  in  the  years  next  before  the  pestilence.  This  was  the  first  of 
a  series  of  laws  known  as  the  "  Statutes  of  Laborers,"  which  were 
reenacted  time  and  time  again  for  the  next  two  centuries.  They 
were  very  hard  to  enforce,  as  the  lords  of  manors  would  in  many 
cases  rather  pay  the  high  wages  than  run  the  risk  of  letting  their 
crops  go  ungathered  and  their  cattle  untended,  while  the  laborers 
felt  that  it  was  an  injustice  to  forbid  them  to  ask  what  their  labor 
seemed  to  be  worth.  The  government,  however,  was  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  the  upper  classes,  the  laws  were  made  more  and 
more  severe,  and  fines  were  imposed  both  for  paying  and  receiving 
higher  wages  than  the  law  allowed.  The  effort  to  put  the  Statutes 
of  Laborers  into  force  was  therefore  a  constant  source  of  hard 
feeling  between  the  employing  and  the  employed  classes. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     245 

213.  Improvement  in  the  Position  of  Villeins. — Several  other 
changes,  which  were  to  a  great  extent  the  result  of  the  pestilence, 
gradually    showed    themselves.     Many    tenants    of  small   farms 
had  died  leaving  no  heirs,  and  landlords  were  therefore  almost 
as  much  in  need  of  tenants  as  they  were  of  laborers.     Under 
these  circumstances  it  was  a  great  temptation  to  villein  tenants 
to  run  away  from  the  manors  to  which  they  belonged,  and  where 
they  lived  under  heavy  payments  and  many  burdens,  and  betake 
themselves  to  other  places  where  they  would  be  welcomed  and 
given  easier  terms.     In  order  to  prevent  them  from  leaving,  there- 
fore, the  lords  of  manors  had  to  agree  to  diminished  payments  and 
services,  and  thus  the  condition  of  the  tenants  became  better. 

Where  the  tenants  had  before  this  time  been  compelled  to 
do  two  or  three  days'  work  in  every  week  on  the  demesne  land, 
the  lord  of  the  manor  in  many  cases  now  felt  himself  compelled 
to  let  them  pay  small  amounts  of  money  instead,  rather  than 
have  them  depart  altogether.  An  old  chronicler  says,  "  Those 
who  received  day's  work  of  their  tenants  throughout  the  year,  as 
the  custom  was  with  villeins,  had  to  give  them  more  leisure  and 
remit  such  works,  and  either  entirely  free  them  or  give  them  an 
easier  tenure  at  a  small  rent." 

Under  these  conditions  of  difficulty  —  scarcity  of  laborers,  high 
wages,  and  diminished  services  —  the  lords  of  manors  gradually 
gave  up  the  practice  of  cultivating  their  own  demesne  lands  and 
rented  them  to  tenants  for  money  rents.  The  most  important 
result  of  this  change  was  that  the  landlords,  now  that  they  had  no 
need  themselves  for  laborers,  took  little  interest  in  keeping  them 
bound  to  their  manors,  and  so  one  of  the  harshest  rules  of  villein- 
age, that  which  restricted  villeins  to  the  manor,  gradually  ceased  to 
be  enforced.  From  this  time  onward  serfdom  became  less  general 
and  less  burdensome.  The  villeins  became  laborers  or  tenants,  who 
might  or  not  be  prosperous  but  who  were  at  least  free. 

214.  Renewal  of  the  War. — Every  effort  had  been  made  by 
solemn  oaths,  the  exchange  of  hostages,  and  papal  guarantees  to 


246  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

make  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny  permanent.  Nevertheless  it  could 
hardly  be  expected  that  it  would  be  so,  when  France  had  been 
deprived  of  almost  one  third  of  her  territory,  burdened  with  a 
heavy  debt,  and  left  smarting  under  defeat  and  disgrace.  Within 
a  few  years,  therefore,  war  broke  out  again,  and  ran  on  in  the 
form  of  indecisive  campaigns  alternating  with  periods  of  truce 
during  almost  all  the  rest  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  fighting 
was  on  the  whole  more  favorable  to  the  French  than  the  early 
campaigns  had  been.  A  group  of  French  leaders  had  learned  the 
lessons  which  the  war  had  taught.  They  fought  with  more  caution 
and  skill,  and  for  the  time  at  least  drove  the  English  out  of  many 
of  their  earlier  conquests. 

215.  Parliamentary  Agitation. — The  ill  success  of  the  war 
during  this  period  made  the  people  of  England  more,  and  more 
restless  and  dissatisfied  with  the  government.  King  Edward  him- 
self as  he  grew  old  took  little  part  in  the  management  of  affairs, 
and  they  were  much  mismanaged  by  the  ministers  and  courtiers 
who  governed  in  his  name.  The  man  who  had  most  influence  in 
the  government  was  the  third  son  of  the  king,  John,  duke  of 
Lancaster,  known  in  history  and  literature  as  "  John  of  Gaunt  "  ; 1 
but  he  showed  little  ability  in  statesmanship,  and  little  attention 
was  given  to  anything  except  the  meeting  of  immediate  needs. 
Taxes  were  heavy,  the  judges  were  open  to  bribery,  and  the  king's 
officers  throughout  the  country  violated  the  rights  of  the  people. 
Parliaments,  however,  were  called  almost  every  year  to  grant  taxes, 
and  thus  an  opportunity  was  given  to  present  complaints  against 
evil  customs  and  to  obtain  promises  from  the  king  to  introduce 
reforms  and  to  change  the  laws.  These  repeated  concessions  to 
parliament  confirmed  its  right  to  take  part  in  almost  all  matters 
that  concerned  the  government,  although  the  laws  made  were  by 
no  means  all  carried  out  and  discontent  continued  among  all 
classes. 

1  He  was  so  called  because  he  was  born  in  the  Flemish  town  of  Ghent, 
which  the  English  pronounced  Gaunt. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     247 

216.  The  Good  Parliament  and  the  Accession  of  Richard  II.  — 

The  parliament  which  met  in  1376  drew  up  a  specially  long  and 
bold  series  of  complaints  covering  almost  the  whole  field  of  action 
of  the  government,  its  courage  extorting  from  the  king  a  promise 
to  redress  most  of  the  grievances.  This  parliament  also  gave  the 
first  precedent  for  impeachment  of  the  king's  ministers  by  order- 
ing the  arrest  and  punishment  of  those  men  who  had  been  guilty 
of  unlawful  actions  while  in  the  service  of  the  king.  The  bold 
efforts  of  this  parliament  to  introduce  permanent  reforms  into 
the  government  caused  it  to  be  known  as  the  "Good  Parliament." 
In  the  midst  of  its  sessions  the  Black  Prince  died.  He  had 
returned  from  Aquitaine  two  years  before,  broken  in  health  and 
depressed  in  spirits.  He  had  encouraged  the  adoption  of  the 
reforms  of  the  Good  Parliament,  but  did  not  live  to  secure  their 
enforcement.  On  his  death  Richard,  his  young  son,  was  at  the 
request  of  parliament  brought  before  them  and  declared  to  be 
heir  to  the  throne.  Edward  himself,  who  had  already  lost  his 
mind,  died  in  the  next  year  (1377),  and  his  young  grandson 
succeeded  him  as  Richard  II. 

217.  The  Poll  Taxes.  —  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Eng- 
lish people  had  now  all  become  one  nation,  with  the  same  lan- 
guage, the  same  customs,  a  centralized  government,  and  engaged  in 
a  great  national  struggle  with  France,  yet  there  were  many  causes 
of  bad  feeling  between  the  upper  and  lower  classes.    The  im- 
provement in  the  condition  of  the  small  farmers  and  laborers 
already  described  was  prevented  by  the  Statutes  of  Laborers  from 
progressing  as  rapidly  as  it  should  have  done.     The  villeins  who 
were  suffering  under  the  burdens  of  serfdom    felt  even  more 
impatient  of  them  when  some  of  their  class  were  being  emanci- 
pated.    In  many  places  there  were  old  disputes  between   the 
landlords  and  their  tenants,  which  had  run  on  for  long  periods, 
but  which  now  when  the  fortunes  of  the  peasantry  were  rising 
became  more  bitter.     The  heavy  taxation  pressed  upon  all  the 
people  alike,  but,  as  usual,  the  poorest  suffered  from  it  the  most. 


248  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  discontent  among  the  mass  of  the  people  was  kept  up 
and  their  restlessness  increased  by  popular  preachers  who  trav- 
eled through  the  country  discussing  the  conditions  of  the  time 
in  their  sermons.  Curious  rhymes  were  repeated  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  starting  from  no  one  knew  where,  but  expressing  in  pop- 
ular language  the  sense  of  misery  and  hardship,  and  increasing 
the  widespread,  sullen  irritation  among  the  lower  classes.  One 
preacher  called  attention  to  the  natural  equality  of  all  men  by 

crying, 

When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 

Who  was  then  the  gentleman  ? 

In  1379  this  feeling  became  more  intense  when  parliament 
introduced  a  new  kind  of  tax,  the  so-called  poll  tax.  Previously 
taxes  had  been  laid  upon  land,  upon  the  personal  property  of 
all  freemen,  and  upon  goods  which  were  exported  and  imported. 
But  now  a  direct  tax  was  laid  upon  each  person  above  twelve 
years  of  age.  There  was  no  chance  of  escaping  it,  since  the 
collector  came  into  each  house  to  collect  it  from  the  head  of  the 
household.  It  was  imposed  upon  freemen  and  villeins  alike,  and 
upon  rich  and  poor.  This  tax  was  laid  twice  in  three  years,  and 
when  the  second  tax  did  not  produce  as  much  as  was  expected 
the  collectors  were  sent  around  a  second  time  to  find  who  had 
avoided  paying  it. 

218.  The  Peasants'  Insurrection  of  1381. — This  second  collec- 
tion of  the  second  poll  tax  was  in  the  early  part  of  1381,  and 
seemed  to  be  the  spark  to  set  on  fire  all  the  long-piled-up  mate- 
rial for  a  great  conflagration.  In  one  village  after  another  the 
people  began  rioting  and  attacked  the  tax  collectors.  They 
next  turned  against  manor  houses,  castles,  and  monasteries.  This 
rioting  extended  through  much  of  the  southeastern  half  of  Eng- 
land. At  the  same  time  several  great  bodies  of  the  rioters  set 
out  for  London  to  reach  the  young  king  and  induce  him  to  redress 
their  wrongs.  Some  made  their  way  into  London  from  the  east ; 
others  came  across  the  river  from  Kent.  They  had  no  difficulty 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     249 

in  making  their  way  into  the  city,  as  some  of  the  London  council 
and  many  of  the  citizens  were  in  sympathy  with  them. 

A  born  leader  came  to  the  front,  Wat  or  Walter  Tyler,  from 
whom  the  whole  insurrection  is  often  called  "  Wat  Tyler's  Re- 
bellion." There  was  no  resistance  and  for  two  or  three  days 
London  was  at  their  mercy.  They  burned  the  city  palace  of  the 
duke  of  Lancaster  and  a  number  of  other  buildings  owned  by 
unpopular  nobles  or  by  the  Knights  Hospitallers.  They  invaded 
the  Tower,  seized  and,  after  the  form  of  a  trial,  beheaded  Arch- 
bishop Sudbury,  who  was  lord  chancellor,  Sir  Robert  Hales,  who 
was  lord  treasurer,  and  some  lower  officials.  They  attacked 
foreigners  and  unpopular  citizens  in  the  streets  and  put  many 
to  death. 

In  the  meantime  King  Richard  agreed  to  meet  the  rebels,  at 
their  request,  at  Mile  End,  a  village  just  east  of  London.  There 
were  said  to  be  sixty  thousand  of  them  present  with  Wat  Tyler  at 
their  head.  The  rebels  asked  for  freedom  from  serfdom,  the  abo- 
lition of  labor  services,  low  rents,  the  repeal  of  the  Statutes  of 
Laborers,  and  some  other  reforms,  and  begged  that  they  should 
be  granted  pardon  for  their  rebellion.  The  king  agreed  to  their 
demands,  although,  as  it  afterwards  proved,  without  intending  to 
be  bound  by  his  promise.  Boy  of  fifteen  as  he  was,  he  recognized 
the  powerlessness  of  the  government,  and  determined  to  promise 
everything  and  then  withdraw  his  promises  when  he  should  again 
have  the  power. 

Some  of  the  rioters  then  returned  to  their  homes,  but  many 
others  with  their  leaders  remained  in  the  city.  The  next  day 
another  interview  with  the  king  was  arranged  for,  at  which  some 
further  requests  were  to  be  made.  The  king  with  the  mayor  of 
London  and  a  group  of  attendants  met  them  in  the  evening  at 
Smithfield.  Tyler  rode  forward  and  laid  the  new  demands  before 
the  king,  who  promised  to  grant  them.  But  the  tide  soon  turned. 
A  dispute  broke  out  between  the  companions  of  the  king  and  the 
leader  of  the  rebels.  This  became  so  violent  that  one  of  the 


250  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

nobles  sprang  forward,  stabbed  Tyler,  and  dragged  him  from  his 
horse,  while  the  others  stabbed  him  to  death  as  he  lay  upon  the 
ground.  As  the  rioters  drew  their  bows  against  the  royal  party, 
the  king,  with  great  presence  of  mind  and  capacity  for  deception, 
rode  forward  toward  them,  crying  out,  "  Are  you  seeking  a  leader? 
I  will  be  your  leader."  The  peasants,  confused  and  without  guid- 
ance, followed  him  outside  the  city  gates,  where  they  were  suddenly 
surrounded  by  a  force  of  troops  which  had  been  gathered  by  some 
of  the  king's  officers.  Here  they  were  disarmed  and  sent  away,  while 
the  gates  of  the  city  were  shut  and  all  strangers  ordered  to  leave. 

While  London  was  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels,  rioting  had  been  in 
progress  in  many  parts  of  the  country.  The  manor  court  records 
kept  by  the  landlords  were  burned  by  the  peasants ;  stewards  of 
estates,  judges  who  had  enforced  the  Statutes  of  Laborers,  collec- 
tors of  the  poll  tax,  and  foreign  merchants  were  mobbed  and  in 
many  cases  killed.  Monasteries  were  attacked  and  the  abbots 
forced  to  grant  to  their  tenants  new  charters  giving  privileges 
and  freedom  from  old  burdens.  For  a  few  days  or  even  weeks 
everything  seemed  to  be  in  the  power  of  the  insurgents. 

219.  Failure  of  the  Insurrection.  — Their  power  fell  as  rapidly 
as  it  had  risen.  After  the  death  of  Wat  Tyler  and  the  departure 
of  the  insurgents  from  London  the  government  began  to  take 
action,  the  nobles  in  different  parts  of  the  country  put  down  the 
rioters  in  their  neighborhood,  and  so  the  storm  began  to  abate. 
Many  of  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  revolt  were  tried  and 
executed  by  the  king's  judges.  The  charters  of  liberty  which 
the  king  had  given  were  withdrawn  by  proclamation,  and  those 
given  by  abbots  and  other  landlords  declared  by  parliament  to 
be  invalid.  Things  were  placed  as  far  as  possible  in  exactly  the 
position  they  had  been  in  before  the  insurrection  had  broken  out. 
After  a  few  months  a  general  pardon  was  issued  to  all  those  who 
had  taken  part  in  it  and  had  not  yet  been  punished. 

The  rebellious  laborers  and  small  tenants  had  had  no  very  clear 
idea  of  what  they  wished  ;  they  were  not  well  organized  and  had 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     251 

few  capable  leaders.  It  is  therefore  difficult  to  perceive  any  per- 
manent results  of  the  rebellion.  The  poll  tax  was  given  up,  and 
serfdom  probably  passed  away  more  rapidly  than  had  been  the 
case  previously.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  indications  of  a 
more  embittered  feeling  between  the  lower  and  the  upper  classes 
than  there  had  been  before,  and  the  latter  made  successful  efforts 
to  get  more  complete  control  over  all  forms  of  government  in 
parliament,  the  church,  the  counties,  and  the  towns. 

220.  Wycliffe.  —  One  of  the  causes  of  the  restlessness  among 
the  people  that  led  to  the  Peasants'  Rebellion  was  a  religious 
revival  which  was  in  progress  at  that  time.  John  Wycliffe,  a 
clergyman  and  a  learned  and  popular  teacher  at  the  University 
of  Oxford,  was  in  the  habit  of  calling  frequent  attention  to  the 
lack  of  earnest  religious  life  on  the  part  of  most  of  the  clergy. 
He  complained  that  the  bishops,  abbots,  and  other  higher  clergy 
were  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  government  or  occupied 
with  the  administration  of  the  large  property  belonging  to  their 
churches.  Priests  of  the  parishes  were  neglectful  of  their  charges, 
and  the  friars  had  become  lazy,  ignorant,  and  avaricious.  The  cure 
for  this  condition  of  affairs,  he  thought,  was  to  be  found  in  a 
life  of  poverty  on  the  part  of  all  clergymen,  in  less  attention 
to  ceremonies,  and  in  a  more  intense  religious  earnestness. 

He  taught  that  no  one  had  any  right  to  property  unless  he 
obeyed  the  laws  of  God,  who  granted  all  their  possessions  to  men 
on  condition  of  obedience  to  Him.  If  any  churchman  committed 
sin  his  property  might  be  rightfully  taken  from  him  by  his  parish- 
ioners or  by  the  government.  When  these  teachings  were  opposed 
by  other  churchmen,  especially  by  the  bishops,  he  declared  that 
the  higher  officials  of  the  church  had  no  real  authority  over  other 
churchmen,  and  that  all  priests  had  an  equal  right  to  teach  and 
act  as  they  saw  fit.  He  opposed  the  authority  even  of  the  pope. 

Like  other  learned  men  of  the  time,  Wycliffe  was  much  given 
to  making  fine  distinctions  in  the  use  of  words  and  expressions, 
and  to  disputing  often  for  the  mere  sake  of  disputation  and  for 


252  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  enjoyment  of  keen  argument.  But  he  was  also  an  earnest 
and  self-reliant  student  of  theology.  In  his  disputations  and 
writings  he  touched  upon  many  of  the  doctrines  of  the  church, 
and  expressed  views  which  were  opposed  to  those  generally  held 
by  churchmen.  He  thus  made  himself  guilty  of  heresy.1 

Wycliffe  was  in  opposition  to  most  of  the  churchmen  of  his  time 
in  three  respects  :  first,  in  charging  them  with  evil  and  unworthy 
lives  which  could  only  be  amended  by  taking  away  from  the  church 
all  its  property ;  secondly,  by  refusing  to  acknowledge  that  the 
pope  and  higher  officials  of  the  church  had  any  authority  over 
the  lower ;  and  thirdly,  in  teaching  religious  doctrines  which  they 
considered  heretical.  He  was,  however,  very  popular  in  the  uni- 
versity, and  had  many  admirers  among  the  learned  and  prominent 
men  of  the  time.2 

221.  The  Poor  Priests  and  the  Lollards.  —To  do  the  work  of 
preaching  the  gospel,  which  the  clergymen  were  leaving  undone, 
to  teach  the  people  in  their  own  language  and  to  arouse  them  to 
a  more  earnest  religious  life,  many  men  now  began  to  go  through 
the  country  wearing  plain  clothes  and  living  on  poor  fare.  They 
were  known  as  "  poor  priests,"  and  were  probably  sent  out,  and 
certainly  encouraged  and  instructed,  by  Wycliffe,  whose  teachings 
they  spread  far  and  wide  by  their  preaching.  They  were  listened 
to  with  interest  by  the  people,  did  much  to  awaken  them,  and 
gained  wide  acceptance  for  the  views  of  Wycliffe.  Those  who 

1  Heresy  consists  in  holding  religious  views  which  are  declared  by  the 
proper  authority  to  be  untrue.     In  the  fourteenth  century  this  authority, 
of  course,  was  the  Catholic  church.     There  was  difficulty  sometimes  in 
obtaining  an  authoritative  statement  of  what  the  teaching  of  the  church 
really  was,  and  until  a  decision  had  been  given  by  the  pope  or  a  council 
there  was  room  for  much  dispute. 

2  Wycliffe  was  a  most  voluminous  writer.     A  society  exists  for  the 
special  purpose  of  providing  for  the  printing  of  his  Latin  works.     So  far 
they  have  published  twenty-five  volumes,  and  several  of  his  works  still 
remain  in  manuscript.     Four  volumes  of  his  English  works  have  also  been 
printed. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     253 

believed  in  the  teachings  of  Wycliffe  were  given  the  nickname 
of  "  Lollards,"  a  term  long  used  in  Germany  and  Holland  for  here- 
tics, and  now  introduced  into  familiar  use  in  England. 

222.  The    Bible    in    English.  —  Besides    their    teaching    and 
preaching  the  "poor  priests"  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  people 
the  Bible  translated  into  English.     English  and  French  transla- 
tions of  parts  or  the  whole  of  the  Bible  were  already  in  existence, 
but  only  in  the  possession  of  the  learned  and  in  a  small  number 
of  copies.     Such  knowledge  of  the  Bible  as  the  people  had  was 
obtained  from  its  use  in  quotations  and  in  the  church  service. 
The  translations  now  made  by  the  Wycliffites  were  spread  widely 
by  the  work  of  copyists,  and  all  who  could  read  them  were  encour- 
aged by  Wycliffe  and  his  followers  to  do  so.    It  is  generally  sup- 
posed that  Wycliffe  shared  in  this  translation,  and  he  certainly 
gave  it  his  countenance ;  but  there  is  no  proof  that  he  did  any  of 
the  work  of  translation  himself. 

223.  Persecution    of   the    Lollards. — The   church   authorities 
were  in  no  haste  to  take  action  against  Wycliffe  and  those  who 
agreed  with  him,  and  some  of  the  bishops  may  have  sympathized 
with  his  teaching.    As  the  movement  spread,  however,  Archbishop 
Arundel,  who  had  succeeded  Sudbury,  the  victim  of  the  rebels  of 
1381,  began  a  vigorous  resistance  to  the  Lollards.     Wycliffe  was 
brought  before  a  church  court  and  finally,  in  1382,  was  ordered 
to  withdraw  from  teaching  at  Oxford.     He  retired  to  the  parish 
of  Lutterworth,  of  which  he  was  rector,  where  he  spent  the  remain- 
ing two  years  of  his  life.     He  wrote  many  of  his  theological  and 
philosophical  works  and  religious  tracts  at  this  time,  and  issued 
directions  and  advice  to  the  "  poor  priests."     Soon  after  Wycliffe 
was  silenced,  his  active  partisans  at  Oxford  were  brought  before 
a  church  council  and  forced  to  acknowledge  their  errors  and  to 
cease  teaching  his  views.     Some  of  the  most  prominent  Lollard 
preachers  through  the  country  were  also  summoned  before  the 
bishops  for  examination.     Most  of  these  early  leaders  of  the  Lol- 
lards gave  way  when  they  were  brought  to  trial,  and  recanted. 


254  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

They  were  thereupon  subjected  to  temporary  punishment  and 
then  restored  to  the  church.  The  authority  of  the  church  was  still 
so  completely  unbroken,  the  doubt  in  the  minds  of  these  men  as 
to  whether  they  could  be  right  when  the  whole  church  was  against 
them  was  so  strong,  and  their  isolation  was  so  complete  that  it  is 
not  a  matter  01  wonder  that  in  most  cases  they  gave  way  when 
brought  to  the  test. 

224.  The  Statute  against  Heretics.  —  Nevertheless,  the  awak- 
ened religious  feeling  among  the  people  could  not  be  so  easily 
lulled  to  sleep.  Many  continued  to  hold  the  views  of  WyclifTe, 
or  opinions  even  more  opposed  to  the  teachings  of  the  church. 
Even  at  Oxford  many  of  the  students  and  masters  held  Lollard 
views.  The  same  was  true  of  members  of  the  upper  classes  and 
of  individual  clergymen  and  laymen  throughout  the  country,  not- 
withstanding the  repeated  efforts  of  the  bishops  to  punish  all 
who  held  heretical  beliefs.  In  1401  a  specially  strong  effort  was 
made  to  stamp  out  heresy.  An  act  was  passed  by  parliament  for- 
bidding any  preaching  or  religious  teaching  without  the  author- 
ity of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and  any  holding  or  spreading 
of  opinions  which  had  been  condemned  by  the  church.  Persons 
suspected  were  to  be  arrested  by  the  officers  of  the  bishops  and 
held  in  prison  until  they  could  prove  their  innocence  or  would 
recant  from  their  errors.  If  they  could  not  or  would  not  do  so, 
they  were  to  be  handed  over  to  the  sheriff  of  the  county  or  other 
proper  official  and  burned  to  death  in  some  high  place  as  a 
warning  to  others.  In  the  very  year  of  the  new  statute  a  Lollard 
priest  was  burned  at  the  stake,  and  during  the  next  few  years 
three  or  four  others  suffered  in  the  same  way. 

Some  years  later,  in  1414,  the  Lollards  had  become  so  numer- 
ous and  their  opinions  had  gone  so  far  beyond  those  of  Wycliffe 
that  a  group  of  them  planned  an  insurrection.  This  was  discov- 
ered and  punished  and  was  followed  by  more  violent  laws  against 
them.  In  the  next  half  century  a  large  number,  probably  as 
many  as  sixty  or  seventy,  were  burned  or  hung,  either  for  heresy 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     255 

or  for  heresy  and  treason  combined.  After  that  tirfie  the  Lollards 
are  heard  of  less  and  less,  and  their  opinions  either  died  out 
altogether  or  sank  into  obscurity. 

225.  Increasing  Use  of  the  English  Language.  —  It  was  one  of 
the  notable  characteristics  of  the  Lollard  religious  revival  that 
Wycliffe  and  his  companions  preached  and  wrote  largely  in  Eng- 
lish.    In  doing  so  they  were  appealing  to  all  classes  of  men. 
The  language  of  the  common  people  was  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury fast  becoming  the  language  of  all  Englishmen.     Latin  was 
still  the  language  of  the  learned  at  the  universities  and  in  the 
church,  and  French  was  still  understood  and  spoken  by  many 
of  the  nobles  and  the  merchants.     But  more  of  them  understood 
and  spoke  only  English.     In  1362   a  law  was  passed  requiring 
that  the  pleadings  in  the  courts  should  for  the  future  be  carried 
on  only  in  English.     The  next  year  the  chancellor's  speech  at 
the  opening  of  parliament  was  for  the  first  time  given  in  English. 

Literature  responded  to  this  change.  There  was  much  religious 
writing  in  English  by  orthodox  churchmen  as  well  as  by  the  Lol- 
lard teachers.  Several  translations  were  made  of  parts  of  the  Bible 
into  English  besides  that  connected  with  the  name  of  Wycliffe. 

226.  Piers  Plowman.  —  Popular  poems  were  also  written  in  the 
language  of  the  common  people.     The  longest  and  most  famous 
of  these  was  the   Vision  of  William  concerning  Piers  the  Plow- 
man.    It  is  a  dreamy  and  somewhat  confused  series  of  allegor- 
ical descriptions  and  dialogues,  in  which  Pride  and  Gluttony, 
Virtue  and  Reward,  and  other  personified  virtues  and  vices  tell 
their  experiences  and  make  their  confessions.     It  has,  however, 
the  charm  of  picturesque  description  and  fiery  earnestness.     It 
is  written  in  the  homely,  everyday  language  of  the   people,  in 
a  kind  of  alliterative  verse  similar  to  that  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon 
poetry.     It  has  a  swing  and  a  rhythm  which  made  it  catch  the 
ear  as  well  as  the  heart  of  the  people.     Its  author  seems  to  have 
been  named  William  Langland,  although  nothing  else  is  known 
about  him  than  can  be  learned  from  the  poem  itself.     He  was 


256  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

apparently  a  man  of  some  learning,  but  evidently  one  of  the  com 
mon  people,  deeply,  even  bitterly  in  earnest  in  his  condemna- 
tion of  the  special  follies  and  evils  of  his  time.  The  popularity 
of  this  poem,  long  and  serious  as  it  is,  was  very  great.  There 
are  still  in  existence  some  thirty-six  manuscript  copies  of  it  made 
before  the  invention  of  printing,  a  century  afterwards.  "  Piers 
Plowman  "  became  the  common  name  to  apply  to  a  poor  laboring 
countryman.  Composed  in  its  first  form  about  1370,  it  was 
rewritten  by  the  author  in  two  later  forms  with  an  interval  of 
several  years  between  each.  Its  English  can  still  be  read  without 
much  difficulty,  as  its  opening  lines  will  show. 

In  a  somer  sesun  whon  softe  was  the  soune, 
I  schop  me  into  a  schroud  a  scheep  as  I  were ; 
In  habite  of  an  hermite  unholy  of  werkes, 
Wende  I  wydene  in  this  world  wondres  to  here. 
Bote  in  a  Mayes  morwnynge  on  Malverne  Hulles 
Me  bifel  a  ferly,  a  feyrie  me  thouhte ; 
I  was  weori  of  wanderinge  and  wente  me  to  reste 
Under  a  brod  banke  bi  a  bourne  syde. 

227.  Chaucer.  —  Piers  Plowman  was  a  poem  of  the  common 
people,  written  by  an  unknown  author.  It  was  stern  and  reli- 
gious in  its  character,  representing  the  feelings  of  a  period  of 
popular  excitement,  and  reflecting  the  oppressions,  the  hard- 
ships, and  the  coarseness  of  the  poor.  In  quite  another  class  of 
society  and  representing  quite  different  surroundings  and  feelings 
was  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  the  most  famous  poet  of  the  period  and 
one  of  the  most  popular  of  English  poets  of  all  time.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  well-to-do  London  merchant,  brought  up  as  a  page 
in  the  service  of  one  of  the  ladies  of  the  royal  family.  He  took 
part  in  the  war  in  France,  traveled  to  Italy,  and  during  most  of 
his  life  was  engaged  in  various  government  offices  and  in  embas- 
sies to  the  continent.  He  was  familiar  with  the  French  and 
Italian  literature  of  the  time,  and  wrote  his  English  poems  under 
the  influence  of  these  better  models.  His  most  famous  poems 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE   HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     257 


are  the  group  called  The  Canterbury  Tales.  They  describe 
thirty  pilgrims  on  their  way  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  at  Can- 
terbury, all  starting  out  from  the  Tabard  Inn  in  Southwark, 
across  the  river  from  London,  and  each  agreeing  to  tell  two  tales 
to  while  away  the  time  during  the  journey.  His  poem  is  prin- 
cipally made  up  of  these  tales,  told  by  the  knight,  the  shipman, 
the  wife  of  Bath,  the  miller,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  merry  party 
that  he  brings  before  us  so  vividly. 

The  poet's  good  humor  and  brightness  never  fail,  his  use  of 
language  and  formation  of  verse  are  skillful,  and  the  stories  in- 
clude a  large  group  of  romantic 
mediaeval  legends  and  many  of 
the  classical  tales  he  had  learned 
in  Italy.  There  is  a  certain  genial 
spirit  of  carelessness  and  even 
recklessness  running  all  through 
Chaucer's  poetry  that  strikes  one 
as  strange  amidst  the  harsh  real- 
ities and  the  popular  excitement 
of  his  time.  But  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  he  belonged  to 
the  upper  classes,  and  that  he 
represented  the  prosperous, 
traveled,  chivalric,  and  lively  ele- 
ment in  English  society.  Yet 
even  Chaucer  had  his  earnest  side.  At  the  end  of  The  Canter- 
bury Tales  he  asks  forgiveness  for  what  is  merely  worldly  in  his 
book,  and  closes  it  with  a  prayer  of  penitence.  Chaucer  was 
England's  most  popular  poet,  and  long  afterward,  when  the  art 
of  printing  was  introduced  into  England,  his  Canterbury  Tales 
was  one  of  the  very  first  books  printed.  His  English  is  still  more 
like  that  of  modern  times  than  the  ruder  language  of  "  Piers 
Plowman,"  as  can  be  seen  from  the  following  passages  from  the 
prologue  to  The  Canterbury  Tales. 


Chaucer  (from  a  contemporary 
portrait) 


258  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

A  Knight  ther  was,  and  that  a  worthy  man, 
That  fro  the  tyme  that  he  first  bigan 
To  ryden  out,  he  loved  chivalrye, 
Trouthe  and  honour,  fredom  and  curteisye. 

There  was  also  a  Nonne,  a  Prioresse, 
That  of  hir  smyling  was  ful  simple  and  coy; 
Hir  gretteste  ooth  was  but  "  by  seynt  Loy  " ; 
And  she  was  cleped  madame  Eglentyne. 


At  mete  wel  y-taught  was  she  with-alle ; 
She  leet  no  morsel  from  hir  lippes  falle, 
Ne  weete  hir  fingres  in  hir  sauce  depe. 
Wel  coude  she  carie  a  morsel,  and  wel  kepe, 
That  no  drope  ne  fille  upon  hir  brest. 

228.  Personal  Career  of  Richard  II.  —  Richard  was  but  twelve 
years  old  on  the  death  of  his  grandfather,  Edward  III,  in  1377, 
and  he  did  not  take  firm  hold  of  the  reins  of  government  till 
he  was  twenty-three.  During  this  long  minority  the  government 
was  controlled  by  successive  parties  of  nobles  and  by  ministers 
appointed  by  parliament.  They  cannot  be  said  to  have  ruled  the 
country  wisely  or  successfully.  The  Peasants'  Rebellion  stirred 
the  nation  to  its  depths,  expensive  and  ineffective  campaigns  in 
France  wasted  without  result  the  force  of  both  nations,  the  poll 
tax  and  other  heavy  burdens  were  laid  upon  the  people,  and  there 
was  a  continual  cry  of  misgovernment,  disorder,  and  oppression. 

In  1389  Richard  suddenly  appeared  in  the  council,  declared 
himself  of  age,  asked  for  the  resignation  of  the  ministers,  and 
announced  his  intention  of  managing  the  affairs  of  the  realm, 
choosing  his  own  councilors,  and  being  the  king  of  England  in 
fact  as  well  as  in  name.  For  seven  years  after  this  he  carried  on 
a  moderate  and  popular  government,  following  the  old  customs*, 
calling  parliament  frequently,  asking  for  but  small  taxes,  encoura- 
ging the  adoption  of  good  laws,  making  a  long  truce  with  France 
and  respecting  the  rights  of  individuals  and  classes. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     259 

But  the  natural  inclinations  of  Richard  were  to  the  exercise  of 
absolute  power.  In  1396  he  visited  the  French  court  and  married 
the  daughter  of  the  king  of  France.  Whether  the  long  effort  to 
rule  moderately  had  at  last  wearied  him,  or  whether  he  had  been 
carried  away  by  the  greater  freedom  of  action  of  the  French  king, 
or  whether  his  mind  was  affected,  as  has  been  sometimes  believed, 
from  this  time  forth  his  character  and  actions  changed.  He  began 
to  collect  money  in  various  illegal  ways,  surrounded  himself  with 
a  bodyguard  of  archers,  brought  about  the  trial  and  execution  or 
banishment  of  several  nobles  for  offenses  which  they  had  com- 
mitted years  before,  and  exercised  such  influence  over  the  elec- 
tions to  the  parliament  of  1397  that  when  it  met  it  was  ready  to 
do  his  bidding  in  all  things.  He  induced  it  to  repeal  certain 
laws  and  pass  others  which  made  him  practically  an  absolute  mon- 
arch. For  about  two  years  he  was  in  a  position  to  rule  as  he 
pleased.  His  government,  however,  was  unwise.  He  angered 
the  people  by  extortionate  taxes,  made  the  extravagant  expenses 
of  the  court  still  heavier,  and  committed  many  other  acts  of  des- 
potic power,  which,  together  with  the  recent  executions,  banish- 
ments, and  interference  with  the  freedom  of  parliam_ent,  took 
away  all  the  popularity  which  he  had  formerly  enjoyed. 

229.  Deposition  of  Richard  II  and  Accession  of  Henry  IV.  — 
Finally  he  banished  his  first  cousin,  Henry  of  Lancaster,  son  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  and  afterwards  confiscated  his  estates,  which  were 
the  most  extensive  of  any  noble  of  England.  Henry  was  a  man 
of  much  experience  and  ability.  He  had  fought  in  a  crusade 
in  Poland,  traveled  to  Jerusalem  and  through  much  of  Europe, 
was  well  known  and  popular  in  England,  and  therefore  was  not 
likely  to  submit  to  permanent  banishment  and  disinheritance. 
He  waited  in  France  till  times  should  be  better. 

In  1399  when  King  Richard  went  on  a  campaign  to  Ireland, 
leaving  England  in  the  hands  of  a  regent,  Henry  suddenly 
appeared  with  a  small  party  in  the  north  of  England,  declaring 
that  he  had  come  back  to  claim  his  estates.  His  popularity  and 


260  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  unpopularity  of  Richard  were  so  great  that  as  he  passed  through 
the  country  he  soon  had  an  army  at  his  back  and  extended  his 
claims  to  the  throne  itself.  When  the  king  returned  from  Ireland 
he  found  himself  deserted  and  all  England  in  the  hands  of 
Henry.  He  recognized  that  all  was  lost  and  promised  to  resign 
the  crown.  He  was  imprisoned  and  required  to  sign  a  paper 
renouncing  his  position  and  power  as  king.  Parliament  was  called, 
the  abdication  of  Richard  read,  charges  against  him  drawn  up, 
and  an  act  deposing  him  passed.  Then  Henry  of  Lancaster  arose, 
stepped  forward  to  the  vacant  throne,  signed  himself  with  the 
cross  on  his  forehead  and  breast,  and  made  a  speech  claiming 
the  throne  as  being  of  royal  blood  and  sent  by  God  to  restore 
the  realm.  Parliament  immediately  acknowledged  him  as  king. 
He  was  then  crowned  with  the  title  of  Henry  IV.  He  and  his 
successors  are  known  as  the  "House  of  Lancaster,"  or  the  " Lan- 
castrian branch  "  of  the  Plantagenet  line  of  kings.  Richard  was 
placed  in  captivity  in  a  castle  in  the  north  of  England  and  died 
within  the  next  few  weeks,  from  a  cause  then  unexplained  and 
always  since  unknown.  Henry  has  of  course  been  charged  with 
bringing  about  his  murder,  but  no  proof  has  ever  been  given  of  it. 
230.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1338  to  1399.  — The  period 
which  has  now  been  surveyed  saw  the  English  nation,  which  had 
been  brought  into  complete  union  during  the  previous  two  hun- 
dred years,  use  its  united  strength  in  a  great  national  war  against 
France.  The  brilliant  victories  of  Sluys  (1340),  Crecy  (1346), 
and  Poitiers  (1356),  and  many  smaller  successes  gained  in  this 
war  furnished  a  fund  of  glory  on  which  the  English  drew  for  cen- 
turies afterwards.  Yet,  notwithstanding  the  favorable  Treaty  of 
Bretigny  (1360),  the  effort  to  put  the  English  king  on  the  throne 
of  France  or  to  gain  any  considerable  part  of  France  and  make 
it  permanently  subject  to  England  was  a  failure.  The  effort 
was  plainly  opposed  by  those  two  powerful  factors  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  history  —  geography  and  race.  The  indirect  effects  of 
the  war  were,  however,  very  important.  England  was  drawn  into 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     261 

closer  connection  with  the  continental  countries,  with  great  advan- 
tage to  her  trade,  industry,  and  intellectual  progress ;  and  the 
excitement  and  successes  of  the  war  aroused  the  people  in  all 
respects. 

Parliament  grew  stronger  and  obtained  a  recognized  right  to 
share  in  many  of  the  powers  of  the  government.  Those  classes 
of  the  people  which  were  represented  in  its  two  houses  now  had 
a  chance  to  be  heard  and  to  have  their  interests  attended  to,  and 
there  was  consequently  much  legislation  for  their  advantage.  The 
lower  classes  of  the  people,  however,  had  no  influence  over  the 
government  or  opportunity  to  make  their  grievances  heard  in 
any  peaceful  way.  It  was  because  of  this  that  they  rose  in  the 
desperate  insurrection  of  1381.  Although  this  revolt  was  com- 
pletely put  down  by  the  king  and  the  upper  and  middle  classes, 
the  time  was  nevertheless  one  of  progress  for  the  lower  classes. 
The  effects  of  the  great  pestilence  of  1349  and  other  changes 
were  quietly  relieving  the  villeins  of  their  serfdom  and  making 
some  of  them  into  free  yeomen  or  small  farmers,  and  others  into 
free  laborers. 

Despite  the  war  abroad  and  restless  disorder  in  England  itself, 
the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  a  particularly  active 
intellectual  and  literary  period.  The  use  of  English  became 
practically  universal  in  literature,  French  being  given  up  almost 
entirely  and  Latin  to  a  very  great  extent.  WyclifTe,  Langland, 
Chaucer,  and  others  wrote  works  which  were  widely  known  at  the 
time  and  are  read  even  yet.  Besides  these  many  pious  works 
were  written  which  still  exist  only  in  their  manuscript  form.  The 
Bible  was  translated  into  English  and  reproduced  in  numerous 
copies,  although  the  authorities  of  the  church  restricted  the  read- 
ing of  it  and  an  effort  was  made  to  destroy  all  the  copies  that  had 
already  been  made.  They  feared  the  effect  of  the  unauthorized 
interpretations  expressed  in  the  translations  or  in  the  comments 
accompanying  them.  The  idea  that  each  man  should  be  allowed 
to  hold  what  opinions  he  chose  on  religious  matters  had  not  yet 


262  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

arisen,  and  the  organized  church  was  still  too  strong  and  too 
narrow-minded  to  permit  a  group  of  men  to  exist  holding  or 
teaching  a  different  set  of  religious  views  from  its  own.  The 
church  authorities,  with  the  help  of  the  king  and  the  royal  and 
town  officials,  persecuted  the  heretical  Lollards  so  vigorously  that 
all  such  belief  died  out  for  the  time. 

General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  v,  sects.  1-5,  contains 
a  vivid  account  of  this  period,  especially  characteristic  of  Green's  predilec- 
tions but  inaccurate  in  its  account  of  the  Peasants'  Rebellion.  MACKINNON, 
History  of  Edward  III,  is  the  most  recent  book  on  his  period.  WAR- 
BURTON,  Edward  III  (Epochs  of  Modern  History),  is  good.  For  the  later 
part  of  the  period  the  best  book  is  TREVELYAN,  England  in  the  Age  of 
Wycliffe.  The  Black  Death  is  best  and  most  fully  described  in  GASQUET, 
The  Great  Pestilence.  JESSOPP,  The  Coming  of  the  Friars,  essays  iv  and  v, 
gives  a  very  vivid  and  interesting  account  of  the  pestilence  in  the  eastern 
counties.  The  Peasants'  Rebellion  is  carefully  described  in  the  book  by 
TREVELYAN  named  above,  and  by  KRIEHN,  American  Historical  Review, 
Vol.  VII,  Nos.  i  and  2.  For  Wycliffe  see  SERGEANT,  Wyclif,  and  POOLE, 
Wycliffe  and  the  Movements  for  Reform  (Epochs  of  Church  History),  and 
LECHLER,y<?/£;z  Wiclif  (two  volumes).  Much  interesting  material  about  this 
period  is  to  be  found  in  JUSSERAND,  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  CORNISH,  Chivalry,  illustrates  still  another  side  of  the  life  of  the  time. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  FROISSART,  Chronicle,  gives  by  far  the  most 
full  and  interesting  account  of  the  events  of  this  period  and  is  reasonably 
accurate,  though  always  prejudiced  in  favor  of  the  king  and  the  nobility. 
It  is  translated  by  JOHN  ES  in  two  thick  volumes.  The  Globe  Edition  volume 
contains  a  well  chosen  series  of  extracts.  The  'Boy^s  Froissart  is  not  so 
good  but  may  be  used.  CHAUCER  and  Piers  Plowman  can  be  read  in 
their  original  form  with  but  little  difficulty.  ASHLEY,  Edward  fll  and 
his  Wars  (English  History  by  Contemporary  Writers),  contains  many 
interesting  extracts  from  chronicles  and  state  papers.  Translations  and 
Reprints,  Vol.  II,  No.  5,  is  devoted  to  material  illustrative  of  this  period. 
Several  interesting  extracts  from  Froissart  and  other  contemporary  writers 
are  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book,  Nos.  29-36;  a  still  larger  number  and  of 
greater  variety  in  FRAZER,  English  History  Illustrated  from  Original  Sources, 
/JO/-7J99  ;  a  few  in  COLBY,  Selections  from  the  Sources,  Nos.  39-42,  and  in 
LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  90-99.  A  large  number  of  documents  of  a  legal 
and  constitutional  nature  are  given  in  ADAMS  and  STEPHENS,  Select  Docu- 
ments, but  none  during  this  period  are  of  the  first  importance. 


FIRST  HALF  OF  THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR     263 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  SHAKESPEARE,  Richard  II,  begins  the  series  of 
continuous  historical  plays  which  extend  over  this  and  the  next  two  cen- 
turies. They  are  based  in  most  cases  on  Holinshed's  Chronicle,  and 
although  not  strictly  accurate  interpret  the  history  of  the  time  with  won- 
derful power.  Miss  YONGE,  Lances  of  Lynwood,  is  a  tale  of  this  period. 
MORRIS,  A  Dream  of  John  Ball,  is  an  idealization  of  the  objects  of  the  peas- 
ants in  the  rebellion  of  1381.  SOUTHEY,  Wat  Tyler,  is  a  drama  concerning 
the  same  events. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  The  Black  Death,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  II, 
pp.  133-137;  (2)  Effects  of  the  Black  Death  on  Wages,  ibid.,  137-146; 

(3)  Methods  of  Warfare  during  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  ibid.,  172-181  ; 

(4)  Wycliffe's  Influence,  ibid.,  159-172;  (5)  Chaucer's  Poetry,  ibid.,  206- 
222,  and    The  Canterbury    Tales,  Prologue;   (6)  the   Treaty  of  Bretigny, 
FROISSART,  Chronicle,  chap.  212;  (7)  the  Battle  of  Crecy,  ibid.,  chap.  130 
(given  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book,  No.  30) ;  (8)  the  Peasants'  Rebellion  in 
Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  POWELL,  Peasant  Rising  in  East  Anglia ;   (9)  the 
Disappearance  of  Serfdojn,  CHEYNEY,  article  in  English  Historical  Review, 
1900,  pp.  20-37;  (10)  the  Recantations  of  the  Lollards,  CHEYNEY,  article 
in  American  Historical  Review,  1899,  pp.  423-438. 


CHAPTER   XI 
THE  HOUSES   OF  LANCASTER  AND  YORK.     1399-1485 

231.  Reign  of  Henry  IV.  —  Parliament  had  taken  a  prominent 
part  in  the  deposition  of  Richard  and  the  election  of  Henry  of 
Lancaster  to  the  throne.  Indeed,  although  the  change  of  kings 
was  really  the  result  of  the  military  power  shown  by  Henry,  yet 
in  appearance  it  was  altogether  the  action  of  parliament,  and 
could  not  have  been  accomplished  with  so  httle  difficulty  except 
with  its  consent.  Henry  pledged  himself  to  govern  in  accordance 
with  the  wishes  of  that  body,  and  neither  to  interfere  in  elections 
nor  to  violate  its  rights,  as  his  predecessor  had  done  during  the 
last  two  years  of  his  reign. 

The  power  of  parliament  had  been  increasing  almost  steadily  dur- 
ing the  century  since  it  had  obtained  its  full  form  under  Edward  I. 
Its  division  into  the  House  of  Lords  and  the  House  of  Commons 
has  been  already  described.  The  constant  necessity  for  appeals  by 
the  king  to  parliament  to  grant  taxes  for  the  expenses  of  the  long 
war  with  France  had  given  it  abundant  opportunity  to  demand  and 
obtain  the  grant  of  new  rights.  It  met  almost  every  year,  some- 
times more  than  once  in  the  year.  In  the  fifty  years  of  the  reign 
of  Edward  III,  parliament  met  forty-eight  times.  In  Richard's 
reign  of  twenty-two  years,  it  met  twenty-four  times.  Frequently 
when  a  grant  of  taxes  was  asked  for,  the  members  of  parliament, 
especially  of  the  House  of  Commons,  replied  by  making  com- 
plaints of  certain  actions  on  the  part  of  the  king  or  his  ministers, 
and  agreeing  to  appropriate  the  money  if  their  wishes  in  these 
matters  were  granted.  The  king  was  generally  obliged  to  yield. 
Thus  changes  were  introduced  into  the  mode  of  carrying  on  the 

264 


THE  HOUSES  OF  LANCASTER  AND  YORK   265 


government,  and  precedents  established  for  the  further  interfer- 
ence of  parliament. 

Little  by  little  parliament  obtained  in  this  way  four  classes  of 
powers.  No  taxes  could  be  imposed  or  collected  without  its  con- 
sent ;  no  new  laws  could  be  adopted  without  its  agreement ;  it 
could  impeach  the  king's  ministers ;  and  it  could  press  upon  the 
king  its  advice  in  all  important  measures  of  government,  includ- 
ing foreign  wars  and  treaties.  Besides  these  powers,  members  of 
parliament  had  obtained  certain  well- 
established  privileges.  They  were  free 
from  arrest  while  present  at,  going  to,  or 
coming  from  parliament,  and  they  could 
say  anything  they  wished  in  debates  in 
parliament  without  being  punished  after- 
ward for  it.  Many  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  which  all  modern  legislatures 
possess  are  derived  from  the  powers  which 
the  English  parliament  gained  between 
1295  and  1400. 

Henry  kept  good  faith  with  parliament 
and  ruled  for  the  most  part  in  accordance 
with  its  wishes,  although  its  complaints 
and  demands  were  numerous.  His  reign, 
which  lasted  for  fourteen  years,  was  not, 
however,  a  fortunate  one.  There  were 
partial  renewals  of  the  war  with  France.  The  struggle  of  the  gov- 
ernment with  the  Lollards  which  has  been  already  described  fell 
mostly  within  his  reign.  He  had  difficulties  with  Scotland,  dis- 
sensions in  his  own  family,  and  above  all,  as  might  have  been 
expected  from  the  way  in  which  he  had  obtained  his  crown,  he 
was  troubled  with  many  conspiracies  and  rebellions. 

232.  Rebellion  of  Owen  Glendower. — One  of  these  was  of 
greater  importance  and  survived  longer  than  any  of  the  others 
because  it  had  back  of  it  the  still  unconquered  national  spirit  of 


Henry  IV  (from  the  effigy 
on  his  tomb) 


266  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

the  Welsh  people.  Since  the  conquest  by  Edward  I,  the  native 
Welsh  princes  had  been  deprived  of  their  independence,  and 
castles  had  been  built  here  and  there  through  Wales  to  hold  the 
country  down.  These  castles  were  occupied  by  English  barons, 
known  as  "  Lords  Marchers,"  who  exercised  most  of  the  powers  of 
government  over  the  surrounding  natives.  The  Lords  Marchers 
were  hard  masters  to  the  native  Welsh  gentry  and  peasants,  and 
disputes  and  conflicts  were  frequent  and  bitter.  Just  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Henry's  reign  a  Welsh  gentleman  named  Owen  Glendower 
rose  in  revolt  against  the  English  nobles.  These  were  of  course 
upheld  by  the  king.  Glendower,  on  the  other  hand,  gradually 
drew  to  his  side  by  far  the  larger  portion  of  the  native  population 
of  Wales.  He  was  descended  from  the  native  princes,  and  could 
appeal  to  that  loyalty  which  is  the  strongest  of  all  sentiments 
among  a  people  still  living  as  clans.  The  love  of  independence 
of  the  Welsh  people  proved  to  be  still  alive,  and  minstrels  with 
the  long  Welsh  memory  passed  through  the  country  stirring  up  the 
people  by  recalling  traditions  of  resistance  to  invaders  from  the 
time  of  the  Romans  downward. 

Owen  was  soon  proclaimed  Prince  of  Wales  and  proved  to  be  a 
skillful  leader.  He  made  devastating  raids  through  the  adjacent 
counties  of  England  and  the  more  thickly  settled  parts  of  Wales, 
and  even  captured  several  of  the  castles.  He  was  idolized  by 
his  countrymen  and  credited  by  the  superstitious  among  both 
Welsh  and  English  with  magical  knowledge  and  powers.  He 
defeated  05.  evaded  successive  armies  sent  against  him,  several  of 
them  led  by  the  king  himself,  and  for  a  few  years  made  Wales 
almost  independent.  His  power  was  strengthened  by  the  out- 
break of  a  great  conspiracy  against  Henry.  The  two  most  power- 
ful noblemen  of  the  northern  shires  of  England,  Henry  and  Thomas 
Percy,  earls  of  Northumberland  and  Worcester,  who  had  helped 
to  put  Henry  on  the  throne,  now  rose  in  revolt  and  joined  Glen- 
dower. With  them  were  "Harry  Hotspur,"  son  of  the  earl  of 
Northumberland,  a  famous  young  soldier,  and  the  earl  of  Douglas, 


THE   HOUSES  OF   LANCASTER  AND   YORK      267 

a  Scottish  nobleman.  This  conspiracy  threatened  to  be  too  strong 
for  the  king  to  resist.  But  in  the  destructive  battle  of  Shrewsbury 
in  1403  the  conspirators  with  their  army  of  fourteen  thousand  men 
were  overthrown,  Hotspur  killed,  and  the  two  earls  captured. 
Little  by  little  the  greater  wealth  and  power  and  better  organiza- 
tion of  the  English,  and  the  perseverance  of  the  king  and  his  son, 
Prince  Henry,  broke  the  resistance  of  Owen  and  his  Welsh  adher- 
ents. The  castles  were  recaptured  and  the  whole  of  Wales  was 
finally  restored  to  obedience  and 
comparative  good  order. 

233.  Renewal  of  the  French  War 
under  Henry  V.  —  In  1 4 1 3  Henry  IV 
died  and  his  eldest  son  Henry  suc- 
ceeded him.  Almost  from  the  be- 
ginning of  his  reign  Henry  V  planned 
to  renew  the  old  war  with  France. 
He  was  by  nature  and  early  train- 
ing a  good  soldier  and  a  vigorous 
ruler,  and  was  ambitious  to  win  glory. 
What  was  more  natural  than  that  he 
should  seek  it  in  France?  Condi- 
tions were  favorable ;  the  French 

Henry  V  (from  a  contemporary 
king  was  insane  and  two  great  parties 

portrs.it) 

among  the  nobles  of  France  were 

involved  in  bitter  disputes  which  constantly  brought  them  to  the 
verge  of  civil  war.  In  1414  Henry  took  a  small  but  well-equipped 
army  across  the  Channel.  The  war  was  soon  marked  by  another 
brilliant  victory  for  the  English,  that  of  Agincourt,  fought  in 
1415,  which  was  even  more  decisive  than  Cre'cy  or  Poitiers.  The 
English  archers  and  men  at  arms  stood  at  bay  while  they  were 
attacked  by  a  French  army  six  times  as  numerous  as  their  own ; 
then  when  the  French  were  halted  by  muddy  ground  and  the 
flight  of  arrows  the  English  swept  down  upon  them  and  crushed 
them. 


268  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

In  the  main  the  policy  of  Henry  V  was  to  carry  on  a  war  of 
sieges  and  of  the  capture  of  towns  instead  of  mere  ravaging,  as  had 
been  done  by  Edward  III  and  the  Black  Prince.  He  captured 
the  cities  and  occupied  the  country  methodically  as  he  passed 
through  it.  But  while  he  was  engaged  in  besieging  the  princi- 
pal towns  of  Normandy,  he  was  at  the  same  time  trying  to  obtain 
the  support  of  one  of  the  two  contending  French  parties.  He 
was  finally  successful  in  this,  and  in  1420  a  treaty  was  signed  at 
Troyes  by  which  Henry  was  acknowledged  as  heir  to  the  throne 
of  France  after  the  death  of  Charles  VI,  the  insane  king,  and  its 
regent  in  the  meantime.  To  seal  this  treaty  Henry  married  the 
daughter  of  the  French  king  and  proceeded  rapidly  to  seize  those 
parts  of  France  which  held  out  against  his  claims. 

The  reign  of  this  great  king  was,  however,  a  short  one,  lasting 
only  nine  years.  His  death  and  that  of  his  father-in-law,  which 
occurred  a  few  weeks  afterward,  made  his  infant  son  Henry  VI,  in 
1422,  nominally  king  both  of  England  and  France.  The  eldest 
son  of  the  late  king  of  France  still  considered  himself  heir  to 
the  throne,  although  he  had  been  disinherited  by  the  Treaty  of 
Troyes.  The  war  therefore  still  continued.  For  a  long  time 
it  went  in  favor  of  the  English.  John,  duke  of  Bedford,  an  uncle 
of  the  young  king,  acted  as  regent,  and  with  the  aid  of  veteran 
English  leaders  and  soldiers  succeeded  in  holding  most  of  France 
and  defeating  the  Dauphin's  party  in  many  engagements. 

234.  Joan  of  Arc.  —  Finally,  however,  the  tide  turned  and  the 
war  began  to  go  against  the  English.  This  was  due  in  great  part 
to  the  influence  of  a  young  French  peasant  girl,  Joan  of  Arc. 
Inspired  by  the  belief  that  she  had  been  given  a  mission  by  God 
to  deliver  France  from  its  invaders  and  to  place  the  Dauphin  on 
the  throne  of  his  fathers,  she  appeared  before  him,  secured  his 
reluctant  consent  to  allow  her  to  lead  some  troops,  inspired  them 
with  her  own  enthusiasm  and  confidence,  and  won  a  great  success 
by  .driving  away  the  English  who  were  besieging  Orleans.  The 
Dauphin  himself  was  then  stirred  to  greater  activity  and  under 


THE   HOUSES   OF   LANCASTER  AND   YORK      269 

the  persuasion  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans,  as  she  came  to  be  called, 
made  his  way  to  Rheims,  the  ancient  coronation  city  of  the  French 
kings,  and  was  there  crowned  king  of  France.  Joan  now  felt  that 
she  had  fulfilled  her  mission  and  asked  to  be  allowed  to  return 
to  her  home,  but  the  Dauphin  insisted  that  she  should  remain 
with  the  army.  Some  time  after  this  she  was  captured  by  the 
English.  After  a  trial  which  was  planned  to  end  in  but  one 
way  she  was  burned  as  a  witch  in  the  market  place  of  Rouen. 
Even  one  of  the  persecutors  of  the  innocent  French  patriot  girl 
wavered  and  turned  away,  crying,  "  God  have  mercy  upon  us, 
we  have  burned  a  saint."  The  movement  of  success  which  Joan 
had  begun  continued,  and  although  the  French  frequently  wasted 
their  opportunities,  yet  on  the  whole  the  reconquest  of  their  native 
land  went  steadily  on.  The  English  were  driven  out  of  one  prov- 
ince after  another;  their  expeditions  from  England  were  more 
poorly  equipped  and  more  unsuccessful.  Finally  the  long  war 
came  to  a  close  in  1453  by  the  defeat  of  an  English  army  near 
Bordeaux,  and  the  loss  of  all  their  territory  in  France  except 
Calais. 

235.  Wars  of  the  Roses. — The  close  of  the  Hundred  Years' 
War  was  only  a  change  from  war  abroad  to  war  at  home  for  the 
next  thirty  years.  The  wealth  and  power  of  the  English  nobles 
were  at  this  time  very  great.  A  number  of  them  were  related  in 
one  way  or  another  to  the  royal  family.  They  had  valuable 
estates  scattered  in  different  parts  of  the  country  and  kept  in 
their  service  large  numbers  of  retainers.1  With  these  numerous 
bodies  of  followers  in  their  service  and  wearing  their  badge  the 
nobles  were  never  at  a  loss  for  men  to  carry  out  their  quarrels, 
which  were  very  frequent.  There  were  many  jealousies  and 
enmities,  and  parties  were  continually  being  formed  among  them 
in  deadly  opposition  to  one  another.  So  long  as  there  was  a 

1  Retainers  were  hired  followers  who  could  be  called  upon  to  act  as 
attendants  on  occasions  of  show,  to  fulfill  duties  as  messengers  or  servants 
about  their  lord's  household,  and,  if  there  should  be  need,  to  fight  for  him. 


2/0  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

strong  king  reigning  the  nobles  were  forced  to  keep  order  among 
themselves,  but  after  the  death  of  Henry  V  there  was  a  long 
period,  while  Henry  VI  was  still  a  child,  when  they  could  not  be 
controlled.  Even  after  he  had  grown  up  he  proved  to  be  too 
mild,  easy-going,  and  weak  to  keep  a  strong  hand  over  the  turbu- 
lent and  disorderly  elements  of  the  country. 

The  king  was  always  under  the  influence  of  one  group  of  nobles 
or  another.  Those  who  were  excluded  from  office  plotted  to  drive 
from  power  those  who  surrounded  the  king.  These  efforts  finally 
led  to  civil  war,  and  a  succession  of  bloody  battles  was  fought, 
several  years,  in  some  cases,  intervening  between  one  battle  and 
another.  This  series  of  battles  is  known  as  the  "  Wars  of  the 
Roses." 

236.  The  House  of  York The  king's  nearest  kinsman  and 

the  most  powerful  and  conspicuous  noble  in  England  was  Richard, 
duke  of  York.  He  was  descended  on  one  side  from  an  elder 
and  on  the  other  from  a  younger  brother  of  John  of  Gaunt,  duke 
of  Lancaster,  the  father  of  Henry  IV  and  great-grandfather  of 
Henry  VI.  The  duke  of  York  had  therefore,  by  strict  hereditary 
right,  a  better  claim  to  the  throne  than  Henry  himself.1  He  did 
not  openly  make  this  claim,  simply  acting  as  leader  of  one  faction 
of  the  nobility.  Yet  more  than  once  he  and  his  party  took  arms 

1  The  claim  of  the  duke  of  York  to  the  throne  was  based  on  the 
following  line  of  descent  from  Edward  III. 

Edward  III,  1327-1377 


| 

Edward, 

Lionel, 

John  of  Gaunt, 

Edmund, 

the  Black  Prince, 

duke  of  Clarence 

duke  of  Lancaster 

duke  of  York 

died 

1376 

I 

Henry  IV,  1399-1413 

Richard  II, 

1377-1399 

1 
Henry  V,  1413-1422 

| 

Henry  VI,  1422-1461 

Anne  married 

Richard 

1 
Richard,  duke  of  York 

earl  of 
r^^u..;^™* 

Edward,  duke  of  York, 
became  king,  1461 


THE   HOUSES   OF   LANCASTER  AND   YORK      271 


against  those  nobles  who  were  gathered  around  the  king,  and 
thus  in  a  certain  sense  fought  against  the  king  himself.  This 
division  of  parties  gave  its  name  to  the  civil  war.  A  white  rose 
was  one  of  the  family  emblems  of  the  duke  of  York,  and  was  used 
by  the  nobles  of  his  party.  A  red  rose  was  then  adopted  as  a 
badge  by  the  nobles  who  surrounded  the  king  and  were  adherents 
of  the  Lancastrian  family  from  which  the  king  was  descended. 
The  white  rose  of  York 
and  the  red  rose  of 
Lancaster  thus  became 
synonymous  with  the 
two  great  political 
parties. 

Little  by  little   the 


Rose  Noble  of  Edward  IV,  showing  on  the 
Side  of  the  Ship  the  White  Rose  Badge  of 
the  House  of  York 


contest  drifted  into  a 
struggle  for  the  crown. 
As  feelings  became 
more  embittered  and  as  the  king  became  subject  to  attacks  of 
insanity,  inherited  no  doubt  from  his  grandfather,  the  king  of 
France,  the  ambition  of  Richard  of  York  to  seize  the  kingship 
for  himself  was  aroused,  but  in  1460,  at  the  battle  of  Wakefield, 
he  was  defeated  and  slain.  His  claims  to  the  leadership  of  his 
party,  to  the  headship  of  the  House  of  York,  and  to  the  crown 
itself  then  descended  to  his  son  Edward. 

237.  Edward  IV.  —  Events  now  moved  on  rapidly.  After  a 
successful  battle  against  the  nobles  of  the  king's  party  in  1461, 
Edward  declared  himself  king  by  hereditary  right  and  was  crowned 
with  the  title  of  Edward  IV.  He  treated  Henry  as  a  usurper,  and 
forced  him  to  flee,  with  his  wife,  son,  and  principal  adherents,  into 
Scotland. 

The  civil  war  still  continued,  however,  the  party  of  the  fugi- 
tive king  righting  more  than  one  successful  battle,  and  even  in 
1471  driving  Edward  temporarily  from  the  country  and  replacing 
Henry  on  the  throne.  This  change  of  rulers  was  largely  brought 


2/2 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


about  by  the  change  of  sides  of  Richard  Neville,  earl  of  War- 
wick, previously  a  strong  supporter  of  the  Yorkist  claims.  His 
influence  over  the  changes  in  the  holding  of  the  crown  has  given 
him  the  name  of  the  "king-maker."  This  arrangement  lasted 
but  a  few  months,  when  Edward  was  restored  and  Henry  was 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  where  he  soon  died.  On  the  whole 
the  reign  of  Edward  IV,  which  continued  till  1483,  was  peaceful, 
successful,  and  prosperous. 

238.  The  Towns  in  the  Fifteenth  Century.  —  The  civil  war  was 
mainly  a  contest  among  the  nobles  and  was  fought  out  by  their 

own  retainers.  It  passed  over  the 
heads  of  the  great  body  of  the  people 
and  they  were  not  much  affected  by 
it.  This  was  the  period  when  the 
towns  of  England  attained  their  great- 
est prosperity  and  most  complete  self- 
government.  Less  labor,  money,  and 
attention  were  now  given  to  the  build- 
ing of  castles,  cathedrals,  and  abbeys 
than  in  earlier  times,  but  much  more 
were  given  to  town  buildings  and  im- 
provements. The  towns  were  becom- 
ing larger,  and  wharves,  market  houses, 
paved  streets,  aqueducts,  timber-built 
dwelling  houses,  and  new  parish  churches  were  becoming  common. 
At  the  same  time  the  townsmen  were  securing  better  charters  from 
the  royal  government,  and  making  use  of  the  representation  which 
they  had  in  parliament  to  obtain  favorable  laws  and  attention  to 
their  trading  and  industrial  interests.  The  fifteenth  century  was 
also  a  period  when  wealthy  merchants  were  endowing  many 
schools  and  other  charities  and  establishing  chantries.1  Printing 

1  A  chantry  was  an  endowment  to  pay  the  expense  of  keeping  up  a  shrine 
in  a  church  and  supporting  one  or  more  priests  to  perform  service  at  it  in 
memory  of  the  founder. 


Edward  IV  (from  a  con- 
temporary portrait) 


THE   HOUSES   OF    LANCASTER   AND    YORK      273 


was  introduced  into  England  in  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Edward 
IV.  The  king  took  a  great  interest  in  matters  of  trade  as  well  as 
in  literary  advancement,  and  invented  "benevolences,"  a  method 
of  obtaining  gifts  from  wealthy  men  to  take  the  place  of  taxation. 
239.  Foreigners  in  England.  —  Much  of  the  increased  impor- 
tance of  the  towns  was  due  to  the  larger  amount  of  manu- 
facturing and  of  trading  between  different  parts  of  England 

and  between  England  and  foreign 

—  - .  «--— •—  -* — \ 

countries.  The  actual  foreign 
trade  was  still  mostly  in  the  hands 
of  foreigners.  Venetian  galleys 
came  almost  every  year  to  South- 
^  ampton  or  London  to  sell  goods 


1 


An  Old  Street  in  the  Town  of  Shrewsbury 

from  Italy  and  the  East,  and  to  buy  English  wool  and  other 
articles.  German  traders  came  from  the  Hanseatic  cities  along 
the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  and  the  North  Sea,  and  not  only  traded 
at  the  English  cities  and  fairs,  but  had  permanent  dwellings  and 
warehouses  in  London,  Lynn,  and  Boston.  Flemish  merchants 
carried  on  much  of  the  wool  trade  with  Flanders.  Representa- 
tives of  Italian  and  German  banking  companies  lived  in  England 
and  made  loans  to  the  government  and  to  churchmen  and 


2/4 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


noblemen.  Since  the  reign  of  Edward  III  many  weavers  and 
other  artisans  had  come  from  the  continent  to  live  in  England, 
and  from  them  the  English  were  rapidly  learning  to  be  themselves 
successful  in  several  lines  of  manufacturing.  England  had  been 
backward  in  manufactures,  commerce,  and  finance  compared  with 
other  European  countries,  but  its  people  were  now  learning  from 
the  foreigners  who  dwelt  among  them  valuable  lessons  which  were 
to  carry  them  in  time  far  beyond  their  teachers. 

240.  Richard  III  and  Henry  VII.— When  Edward  IV  died  in 
1483  he  left  two  young  sons  and  a  daughter.  The  eldest  son 

was  crowned  king  as  Edward  V, 
but  he  was  soon  set  aside  and 
probably  murdered  in  the 
Tower  of  London,  along  with  his 
brother,  Richard,  duke  of  York, 
by  their  uncle  Richard,  duke  of 
Gloucester,  who  then  made  him- 
self king  as  Richard  III.1 

The  civil  war,  however,  was 
not  even  yet  settled,  and  after 
two  years  a  new  conspiracy  was 
formed  and  Richard  in  turn  was 
killed  on  the  battlefield  of  Bos- 
worth  by  Henry  Tudor,  earl  of 
Richmond,  the  representative 
after  the  death  of  Henry  VI  of 

the  old  Lancastrian  party.  The  victorious  earl  was  crowned 
in  1485  as  Henry  VII.  He  had  gained  the  adhesion  of  many 
of  the  Yorkist  party  by  agreeing  to  marry  Elizabeth,  daughter 

1  The  murder  of  the  two  young  princes  was  long  a  mystery  and  is  not 
yet  entirely  clear,  but  twenty  years  after  their  disappearance  Sir  James 
Tyrrel  confessed  that  he  had  secretly  strangled  and  buried  the  two  boys  in 
the  Tower,  and  two  hundred  years  later  two  skeletons,  which  corresponded 
to  their  size,  were  discovered  buried  under  the  steps. 


Richard 


(from  a  contemporary 
portrait) 


THE  HOUSES  OF  LANCASTER  AND  YORK   275 

of  Edward  IV,  and  this  marriage  now  took  place.  There  was 
thus  founded  a  new  and  great  line  of  kings,  the  Tudors.  So 
many  and  such  important  changes  occurred  during  the  period 
of  the  Tudors  that  by  general  consent  it  is  looked  upon  as  a  new 
epoch  and  its  history  will  be  the  subject  of  the  next  two  chapters. 

The  Wars  of  the  Roses  have  left  a  dark  record.  There  was 
no  great  principle  for  which  the  two  parties  were  fighting.  The 
early  battles  were  merely  to  gratify  the  jealousy  and  mutual  hatred 
of  the  great  nobles,  the  later  ones  only  to  secure  possession  of 
the  crown.  The  leaders  frequently  betrayed  one  another,  and 
changed  sides  from  motives  of  anger  or  personal  ambition.  Some 
of  the  battles  were  very  bloody,  and  many  captured  nobles  were 
put  to  death  on  the  baseless  charge  of  treason. 

There  was  a  constant  succession  of  confiscations  of  estates, 
many  of  the  old  noble  families  were  ruined  in  fortune,  and  some 
of  them  were  left  without  a  single  representative  to  continue  the 
family  name  and  title.  This  resulted  in  the  weakening  of  the 
baronage,  which,  with  the  hearty  desire  of  the  people  for  peace, 
for  a  settled  succession,  and  for  good  order,  worked  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  first  Tudor  king,  Henry  VII. 

241.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1399  to  1485.  — The  second 
part  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  after  its  renewal  under  Henry  V, 
was  marked  by  still  another  brilliant  victory  for  the  English,  that 
of  Agincourt,  in  1415  ;  and  by  a  temporary  settlement,  the 
Treaty  of  Troyes,  in  1420.  But  these  did  not  prevent  the  final 
failure  of  the  English  effort  to  conquer  France,  and  at  the  end  of 
this  period  England  had  less  territory  on  the  continental  side  of 
the  Channel  than  she  had  at  its  beginning. 

When  the  wars  with  France  were  over,  and  a  weak-minded 
king  was  on  the  throne,  a  civil  war  broke  out  among  the  English 
nobility  which  resulted  in  1461  in  deposing  the  king  and  putting 
the  House  of  York  in  the  place  of  the  House  of  Lancaster. 
There  were  still,  however,  numerous  battles  before  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses  were  closed  by  the  final  success  of  Henry  VII  in  1485 


2/6 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


and  his  marriage  with  Elizabeth  of  York,  a  lady  who  represented 
the  claims  of  the  other  line. 

During  this  whole  period  the  middle  classes  of  the  people  both 
in  the  country  and  in  the  towns  were  steadily  becoming  more 
important  and  influential.  In  the  succeeding  period  it  will  be 
found  that  the  opinions  and  interests  of  these  middle  classes  are 


The  Cloisters  of  Gloucester  Cathedral 

especially  considered  by  the  kings,  and  it  is  they  who  make  the 
history  of  the  time  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  in  any  of  the 
periods  we  have  so  far  studied. 


General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  chap, 
v,  sect.  6,  and  chap,  vi,  sects.  1-3.  RAMSAY,  Lancaster  and  York  (2  vols.), 
is  a  detailed  history  of  this  period,  paying  especial  attention  to  military  and 
financial  matters.  GAIRDNER,  The  Houses  of  Lancaster  and  York  (Epochs 
of  History),  is  a  shorter  and  more  well  balanced  work.  WYLIE,  England 
under  Henry  IV '(4  vols.),  is  a  study  of  encyclopedic  minuteness  of  that  reign. 
OMAN,  Warwick  the  King-Maker,  furnishes  a  useful  clew  to  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses.  KINGSFORD,  Henry  V  (Heroes  of  the  Nations),  is  a  good  work. 


THE   HOUSES   OF   LANCASTER  AND   YORK      277 

A  full  study  of  town  life  is  Mrs.  GREEN,  Town  Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century. 
DENTON,  England  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  describes  some  sides  of  history 
neglected  in  other  works. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  A  number  of  extracts  from  the  chronicles  are 
gathered  in  THOMPSON,  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  (English  History  by  Con- 
temporary Writers),  and  DURHAM,  English  History  from  Original  Sources, 
1399-14.85.  The  Fusion  Letters  are  a  valuable  collection  of  family  corre- 
spondence referring  to  the  latter  part  of  this  period.  Interesting  extracts 
are  given  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book,  No.  38,  and  COLBY,  Selections  from  the 
Sources,  No.  47. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  SHAKESPEARE,  Henry  IV,  parts  i  and  2 ;  Henry 
V;  Henry  VI,  parts  I,  2,  and  3 ;  and  Richard  ///are  most  valuable.  His 
characterization  of  Joan  of  Arc,  as  of  many  other  individuals,  is  absolutely 
without  historical  basis,  but  his  insight  into  motives  and  drawing  of  char- 
acter are  of  the  greatest  historical  value.  BuLWER-LYTTON,  The  Last  of 
the  Barons,  STEVENSON,  The  Black  Arrow,  and  CHURCH,  The  Chantry 
Priest  of  Barnet,  are  tales  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Miss  YONGE,  The 
Caged  Lion,  is  a  good  story  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
DRAYTON,  The  Battle  of  Agincourt ;  SOUTHEY,  King  Henry  V  and  the  Hermit 
of  Dreux,  and  ROSSETTI,  The  King's  Tragedy,  are  three  ballads  printed  in 
BATES  and  Co  MAN,  English  History  Told  by  English  Poets. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Joan  of  Arc,  GREEN,  Short  History  of  the  English 
People,  chap,  vi,  sect,  i ;  (2)  Caxton,  ibid.,  chap,  vii,  sect.  3 ;  (3)  The  Steel- 
yard in  London,  FAULT,  Pictures  from  Old  England,  essay  vi ;  (4)  The  Later 
Lollards,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  II,  pp.  277-293;  (5)  Magic  and 
Sorcery,  ibid.,  pp.  370-375  ;  (6)  The  Towns  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  ibid., 
pp.  407-413 ;  (7)  Parliament  in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  MONTAGUE,  Consti- 
tiitional  History,  chap,  vii ;  (8)  The  Treaty  of  Troyes,  KINGSFORD,  Henry  V, 
pp.  300-308. 


CHAPTER   XII 
THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD.     1485-1558 

242.  Henry  VII.  — The  reigns  of  the  new  line  of  kings  fall  in 
so  exactly  with  a  number  of  very  important  changes  affecting  the 
history  of  the  whole  people  that  the  name  of  the  Tudor  family 
is  quite  naturally  applied  to  this  period.  To  this  dynasty  belonged 
five  sovereigns  who  reigned  altogether  for  somewhat  more  than  a 
century.  The  reigns  of  four  of  them  fall  within  the  period  covered 
by  this  chapter.1 

The  title  of  Henry  VII,  who  had  been  crowned  on  the  battle- 
field of  Bosworth,  was  not  a  very  clear  one.  It  was,  however, 
accepted  by  parliament  and  by  public  opinion,  and  was  made 
stronger  by  his  marriage  with  Elizabeth  of  York,  daughter  of 
Edward  IV.  Nevertheless  Henry  had  to  put  down  four  separate 

1  The  descent  and  relationships  of  the  Tudor  family  were  as  follows: 

Edward  III,  1327-1377 
John  of  Gaunt,  duke  of  Lancaster 

Margaret  Beaufort,  m.  Edmund  Tudor,  earl  of  Richmond 
Henry  VII,  1485-1509,  m.  Elizabeth  of  York 


Arthur, 
died  1502, 

Henry  VIII,  1509-1547 
m.  (i)  Catherine  of 

Margaret, 
m.  James  IV 

Mary,  m.  (i)  Louis  XII  of 
France 

m.  Catherine  of                         Aragon 
Aragon              |  m.  (2)  Anne  Boleyn 
|  m.  (3)  Jane  Seymour 

of  Scotland 
I 
James  V  of 

m.  (2)  Charles  Brandon 
|         duke  of  Suffolk 
Frances,  m.  Henry  Grey, 

Mary, 

m.  (4)  Anne  of 

Scotland 

marquis  of 

i 

,-.      , 

Cleves 

I 

Dorset 

m.  (5)  Catherine 
Howard 

Mary, 
Queen  of  Scots, 

Lady  Jane  Grey, 
executed  1554 

Elizabeth, 

m.  (6)  Catherine 

executed  1587 

1558-1603 

Parr 

| 

James  VI  of 

Edward  VI, 

Scotland  and 

1547-1553 

I  of  England, 

1603-1625 

278 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  279 

armed  rebellions,  two  of  which  threatened  to  drive  him  from  the 
throne.  Two  years  after  his  coronation  he  was  confronted  by  a 
serious  revolt  headed  by  a  certain  impostor  named  Lambert  Sim- 
nel,  who  claimed  to  be  nephew  of  Edward  IV  and  true  heir  to  the 
crown.  A  bloody  battle  was  fought  at  Stoke  in  which  many  of  the 
leaders  were  killed  and  the  pretender  captured.  Henry  in  derision 
made  him  a  scullion  in  the  palace  kitchen.  The  second  attempt 
was  still  more  threatening  but  not  more  successful.  A  Fleming 
named  Perkin  Warbeck  was  carefully  trained  to  personate  Richard, 
duke  of  York,  younger  son  of  Edward  IV,  who  had  really  been  mur- 
dered in  the  Tower.  For  several  years  he  passed  from  one  Euro- 
pean court  to  another,  acknowledged  by  those  sovereigns  who  were 
hostile  to  Henry,  and 
keeping  the  English 
king  in  constant  fear 
of  invasion.  One 
after  another  of  these 
dangers  was,  how- 
ever, avoided  by 
Henry's  diplomacy 
or  concessions,  and  Sovereign  of  Henry  VII,  showing  the  "Tudor 
Rose,"  the  Emblem  of  the  Combined  Houses 
when  Warbeck  finally  of  York  and  Lancaster 

invaded  England  in 

1497  it  was  with  a  volunteer  force  which  soon  melted  away  and 
left  him  in  Henry's  power.  He  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower 
and  after  an  attempt  to  escape  was  hanged. 

Henry  VII  had  two  sons,  Arthur  and  Henry,  and  two  daughters, 
Margaret  and  Mary.  They  were  all  married  in  such  a  way  as  to 
strengthen  his  position  abroad  and  prevent  help  being  given  to 
claimants  to  his  crown.  He  arranged  a  marriage  between  Arthur 
and  Catherine,  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  king  and 
queen  of  Aragon  and  Castile.  Arthur  died  a  few  months  after 
his  wedding,  but  it  was  arranged  that  Catherine  should  remain  in 
England  as  the  future  bride  of  the  king's  second  son,  Henry. 


280  A   SHORT   HISTbRY   OF   ENGLAND 

Margaret  went  to  Scotland  as  the  wife  of  King  James  IV.  The 
youngest  daughter  Mary  was  only  a  child  at  her  father's  death, 
but  the  same  policy  was  carried  out  later  by  her  brother,  who  gave 
her  hand  to  the  king  of  France,  as  pledge  of  an  alliance  with  that 
country. 

Henry  VII  was  a  self-controlled,  clear-sighted,  and  able  man. 
He  was  hard-working,  shrewd,  and  persevering.  He  was  more  a 
man  of  business  than  former  kings  had  been  and  devoted  himself 
largely  to  the  practical  work  of  statesmanship.  He  obtained  the 
help  also  of  capable  and  devoted  ministers.  The  ablest  of  these 
was  old  Cardinal  Morton,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had  held 
office  under  Henry  VI,  Edward  IV,  and  Richard  III.  He  served 
Henry  as  lord  chancellor  and  was  his  most  trusted  adviser  during 
most  of  his  reign.  To  the  wisdom,  judgment,  experience,  and 
skill  in  statecraft  of  Cardinal  Morton  most  of  the  success  of  the 
new  government  was  due.  Henry  chose  his  other  ministers  also 
not  from  the  high  nobility,  but  wherever  he  could  find  men  of 
sufficient  ability. 

243.  The  Preservation  of  Order.  —  Henry  came  to  the  throne 
determined  to  keep  good  order  in  his  kingdom.  Lawlessness  had 
been  too  common  in  England  during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  and 
he  showed  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign  that  he  intended 
to  insist  on  a  new  standard  of  peace  and  good  behavior.  Not 
only  were  all  revolts  put  down  with  a  heavy  hand,  and  their  leaders 
executed,  but  one  by  one  all  possible  rivals  to  the  throne  were  put 
to  death.  Both  Henry  VII  and  his  successor  were  determined 
that  there  should  be  no  more  Wars  of  the  Roses.1  These  execu- 
tions were  brought  about  by  regular  process  of  law,  after  the 
offenders  had  laid  themselves  open  in  each  case  to  a  charge  of 

1  The  persons  of  royal  blood  who  were  thus  executed  were,  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  VII,  the  earl  of  Warwick,  nephew  of  Edward  IV  :  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII,  the  duke  of  Buckingham,  great-great-grandson  of  Edward  III ; 
the  marquis  of  Exeter,  a  grandson  ;  Lord  Montague,  a  great-nephew ;  and 
the  countess  of  Salisbury,  a  niece  of  Edward  IV. 


THE  EARLY  TUDOR   PERIOD 


28l 


treason ;  but  they  were  brought  to  trial  at  the  instance  of  the 
king,  and  the  condemnation  and  execution  that  invariably  followed 
were  in  accordance  with  the  king's  wishes  and  interests.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  any  one  of  these  executions  would  have  taken 
place  if  the  king  had  not  been  known  to  wish  it. 

Next  the  nobility  was  reduced  in  importance.  The  part  which 
the  great  nobles  had  played  in  the  government  ever  since  Saxon 
times  was  now  over.  So  many  noble  families  had  been  destroyed 
in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  so  many  estates  had  been  forfeited  to 
the  crown,  and  so  power- 
ful was  the  king,  that  the 
landed  nobility  were  no 
longer  able  by  their  great 
numbers  and  possessions  to 
overawe  the  crown. 

244.  Court  of  Star  Cham- 
ber.—  Means  were  also 
taken  to  prevent  the  lesser 
disturbances  through  the 
country  for  which  the 
nobles  and  gentry  were 
responsible.  The  king 
forced  them  all,  when  they 
came  to  parliament,  to  bind 
themselves  by  an  oath  to  keep  the  old  laws  against  livery  and 
maintenance,  not  to  hire  armed  followers  who  should  wear  their 
badges,  and  not  to  interfere  with  the  action  of  the  regular  courts. 
In  1487  a  law  was  passed  organizing  what  was  afterwards  known  as 
the  "  Court  of  Star  Chamber."  The  law  provided  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  from  the  privy  council  who  were  to  act  as 
an  extraordinary  court  taking  charge  of  several  kinds  of  cases 
which  the  ordinary  courts  had  not  been  strong  enough  to  settle. 
Its  duties  were  the  punishment  of  persons  who  kept  large  bands 
of  armed  retainers,  those  who  bribed  or  threatened  sheriffs  or 


Henry  VII  (from  a  contemporary  portrait) 


282  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

jurymen,  and  those  who  took  part  in  riots  or  other  unlawful 
gatherings.  This  group  of  councilors  sat  in  later  times  in  the 
room  in  the  palace  of  Westminster  known  as  the  "Star  Chamber," 
and  got  its  name  from  this  circumstance.  As  it  sat  at  the  capital 
of  the  kingdom,  as  it  had  all  the  authority  of  the  king  immediately 
behind  it,  as  well  as  the  authorization  of  parliament,  and  as  it  was 
not  limited  by  such  strict  rules  of  procedure  as  the  ordinary 
courts,  it  was  able  to  exercise  a  great  deal  of  power  which  the 
other  courts  of  law  did  not  possess. 

245.  Strong  Monarchy.  — This  creation  of  what  has  been  called 
a  "  strong  monarchy  "  was  one  of  the  constant  objects  of  Henry's 
policy.  He  succeeded  in  creating  what  was  practically  an  absolute 
rule.  He  not  only  strengthened  the  law  courts  but  made  every 
effort  to  arrange  the  income  and  expenditure  of  the  government 
in  such  a  manner  that  he  should  always  have  enough  money  when 
it  was  needed.  All  the  old  sources  of  income,  —  crown  lands, 
feudal  dues,  customs  duties,  and  parliamentary  grants  were  made 
as  productive  as  possible.  The  whole  country  was  growing  richer 
and  the  good  order  kept  everywhere  made  it  possible  to  collect 
larger  amounts  from  these  sources  than  had  been  possible  before. 

While  the  income  of  the  government  was  in  these  ways  in- 
creased, the  king  watched  expenditures  carefully.  Exact  accounts 
from  all  officials  were  insisted  upon,  foreign  wars  were  carefully 
avoided,  and  many  other  expenses  reduced.  In  addition  to  these 
legitimate  financial  reforms,  Henry  adopted  various  irregular  expe- 
dients for  raising  money,  such  as  benevolences  and  the  infliction 
of  heavy  money  fines  upon  men  who  had  unwittingly  violated  obso- 
lete statutes.  "  Morton's  fork  "  became  a  famous  form  of  dilemma. 
Henry's  minister  of  that  name  frequently  intimated  to  persons 
who  lived  extravagantly  that  it  was  evident  that  those  who  spent 
so  much  could  readily  afford  to  make  a  gift  to  the  king ;  while  he 
informed  those  who  lived  frugally  that  it  was  evident  that  they 
who  spent  so  little  must  have  something  from  which  they  could 
make  a  gift  to  the  king.  By  these  various  means  the  financial 


THE   EARLY  TUDOR   PERIOD 


283 


Map  of  Towns  and  Counties 


284  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

condition  of  the  government  became  so  strong  that  the  king  was 
able  to  pay  regular  expenses  out  of  regular  income,  and  yet  spend 
large  sums  at  certain  times  when  they  were  needed  without  exhaust- 
ing the  treasury,  which  was  full  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

246.  Decrease  of  the  Power  of  Parliament.  —  By  his  financial 
independence  the  king  was  freed  from  the  necessity  of  calling 
parliament  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  grants  of  money,  as  his 
predecessors  had  done.     It  was  therefore  summoned  much  less 
frequently  than  before,  meeting  only  five  times  during  his  whole 
reign,  and  only  once  during  its  last  twelve  years.     Even  when  it 
did  meet  it  was  much  under  the  king's  influence.     In  the  House 
of  Commons  a  member  who  was  also  an   official  of  the   king 
was  usually  chosen  speaker  and  through  him  the  king's  wishes 
were  carried  out.    The  laws  which  were  favored  by  the  king  were 
in  most  cases  those  which  were  favorable  to  the  interests  of  the 
middle  classes  who  elected  the  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons.   Thus  parliament  interfered  very  little  with  the  government 
of  the  king,  and  showed  itself  ready  and  willing  to  follow  the 
suggestions  made  to  it  by  his  ministers. 

247.  The  Merchant  Adventurers  and  Other  English  Traders.  — 
Clothed  with  these  high  powers  and  served  by  able  officials  the 
government  of  Henry  VII  turned  its  attention  to  the  regulation 
of  a  great  many  things  which  had  been  disregarded  by  the  govern- 
ment before  this  time.     One  of  the  directions  in  which  this  was 
most  successfully  done  was  in  the  encouragement  of  foreign  trade. 
It  has  already  been  explained  that  English  trade,  although  large 
in  amount,  was  carried  on  almost  altogether  by  foreigners.    In  all 
treaties  with  other  countries  into  which  Henry  now  entered  he 
arranged  that  English  traders  should  be  admitted  there  for  the 
purpose  of  selling  and  buying  goods.     An  instance  of  this  policy 
was  the  Intercursus  Magnus,  made  in   1496  with  the  duke  of 
Burgundy,  to  admit   English  goods  into  the  Netherlands.     He 
encouraged    all    English    companies    of  merchants    which    were 
formed  to  take  part  in  foreign  trade. 


THE   EARLY  TUDOR   PERIOD  285 

There  had  been  for  a  century  and  more,  in  the  Netherlands,  an 
organization  of  English  merchants  known  as  the  "  Merchant  Adven- 
turers," engaged  mainly  in  the  sale  of  English  woolen  cloth.  This 
trade  was  steadily  increasing,  but  the  merchants  were  loosely  organ- 
ized and  had  few  powers  from  the  home  government  to  regulate 
the  affairs  of  their  trade.  They  attracted  the  attention  of  Henry, 
and  were  by  him  given  the  right  to  have  a  company  seal  and 
coat  of  arms  of  their  own  and  granted  a  new  charter  giving  them 
complete  control  over  the  affairs  of  their  trade  abroad  and  even 
in  England.  At  the  same  time  foreigners  coming  to  trade  in 
England  were  deprived  of  the  privileges  which  they  had  formerly 
possessed  and  found  opposition  instead  of  encouragement  from 
the  English  government.  There  were  many  commercial  changes 
in  progress.  The  conquests  of  the  Turks  in  the  eastern  Mediter- 
ranean had  cut  off  the  old  routes  to  India,  and  Portugal  had  dis- 
covered a  new  one  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Both  the 
Venetian  galleys  and  the  Hanse  vessels  came  less  frequently  and 
in  smaller  numbers  to  England.  English  traders,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  going  with  their  vessels  in  constantly  larger  numbers 
to  the  ports  on  the  Mediterranean  and  Baltic  seas  and  to  the 
shores  of  the  continent  directly  opposite  England. 

248.  The  New  World.  —  This  interest  in  commercial  life  was 
leading  Englishmen  to  join  in  the  explorations  which  were  then 
being  made  not  only  by  the  Portuguese  but  by  several  other 
nations.  The  seaport  of  Bristol  was  the  center  of  English  activ- 
ity in  this  direction.  Columbus  visited  it  some  years  before  he 
set  out  on  his  successful  voyage,  and  several  early  but  fruitless 
expeditions  in  search  of  new  lands  were  sent  out  from  that  city. 
Settled  at  Bristol  was  a  Venetian  merchant  named  John  Cabot, 
with  his  three  sons.  Cabot  had  either  thought  out  for  himself  or 
gained  from  Columbus  the  idea  of  sailing  westward  to  reach  the 
great  spice-producing  lands  of  Asia.  In  1496  Henry  gave  him 
permission  to  organize  an  expedition  under  the  English  flag  and  to 
take  possession  in  the  name  of  the  king  of  England  of  any  lands 


286  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

he  might  discover.  The  expedition  sailed  in  1497  and  during 
a  three  months'  trip  discovered  and  explored  the  coast  of  Lab- 
rador and  brought  back  a  map  of  the  discoveries.  In  Henry's 
diary  is  recorded  a  gift  of  £10  "  to  hym  that  founde  the  new 
Isle."  Afterwards  new  expeditions  and  voyages  of  discovery  from 
Bristol  were  made  from  time  to  time,  but  they  had  little  success. 
They  were  in  search  either  of  riches  in  the  lands  that  they  first 
reached,  or  of  a  passage  beyond  them  to  the  East  Indies.  In  the 
parts  of  America  to  which  the  voyage  directly  westward  from  Eng- 
land brought  them,  they  found  nothing  of  the  former,  and  in  seek- 
ing a  northwest  passage  they  only  pressed  deeper  and  deeper  into 
the  ice-bound  regions  of  northern  America.  Nevertheless,  from 
this  time  forward  England  had  a  new  interest  and  new  ambitions 
in  the  unknown  western  world. 

249.  The  Renaissance The  age  of  Henry  VII  was  a  time  of 

great  intellectual  awakening.  Much  of  this  was  due  to  the  influ- 
ence of  Italy.  In  that  country  there  had  been  during  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries  a  new  and  lively  interest  in  many 
lines  of  study  and  art,  and  a  great  development  of  learning,  litera- 
ture, painting,  sculpture,  and  building.  This  is  called  the  "  Re- 
naissance," that  is,  the  new  birth  of  the  interests,  knowledge,  and 
ideas  which  the  Romans  and  Greeks  of  antiquity  had  possessed. 
From  Italy  these  intellectual  interests  gradually  spread  to  other 
countries.  Many  young  Englishmen  went  to  Italy  to  travel  or 
study  and  came  home  imbued  with  the  ideas  prevalent  there. 
They  brought  back  with  them  books  on  a  variety  of  subjects  in 
which  Englishmen  had  previously  taken  little  interest.  Some 
learned  Italians  came  to  England  to  visit  or  to  settle,  and  they 
also  spread  the  same  love  for  and  interest  in  classical  learning. 
One  of  the  men  who  exercised  the  strongest  influence  in  England 
was  Erasmus,  a  great  Dutch  scholar  who  was  familiar  with  all  the 
new  Italian  and  the  older  classical  learning  and  came  to  England 
for  the  first  time  in  1498,  having  been  invited  by  a  young  English 
nobleman  whom  he  had  met  at  Paris.  He  visited  England  again 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD 


287 


and  again  in  after  years,  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  several 
learned  Englishmen,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  discussions  of 
the  time. 

250.  Humanism  in  England.  —  As  a  result  of  this  awakened 
attention  to  ancient  forms  of  learning,  several  new  subjects  came 
to  be  studied  at  the  universities.  Three  men,  Grocyn,  Linacre, 
and  Colet,  who  had  all  studied  in  Italy,  taught  Greek  at  Oxford  from 
1494  onward,  and  also  gave  instruction  in  other  subjects,  such  as 
medicine  and  philosophy,  to  which  the  Greek  language  served  as 


Tomb  of  Dr.  Yonge,  Rolls  Office,  London  (in  the  Italian  style) 

an  introduction,  and  to  which  it  gave  a  new  interest.  These  men, 
by  their  enthusiasm,  imparted  to  their  students  a  love  of  the  Latin 
and  Greek  languages,  and  a  desire  to  become  familiar  with  the 
works  of  the  ancient  authors  who  had  written  in  them.  This  study 
of  the  Classical  authors  and  of  their  language  and  their  writings, 
which  is  characteristic  of  all  Europe  during  this  period,  is  spoken 
of  as  "  humanism."  The  special  form  it  took  in  England  is  often 
called  the  "new  learning."  Many  men  who  had  never  been 
abroad  became  equally  earnest  devotees  of  this  new  learning. 
Thomas  More  was  one  of  the  most  gifted  and  learned  of  these. 
He  studied  at  Oxford  and  always  afterward  remained  on  terms  of 


288  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

friendship  and  kept  up  his  intercourse  with  the  group  of  learned 
men  who  were  there  at  that  time. 

Most  of  these  men  were  not  only  students  but  reformers,  anxious 
to  improve  the  condition  of  the  world,  to  spread  education  more 
widely,  to  improve  the  schools,  to  bring  about  a  cessation  of  wars, 
to  abolish  unjust  and  unwise  laws,  and  to  make  men  more  broad- 
minded  and  liberal  in  their  feelings  and  actions.  Soon  after  the 
death  of  Henry  VII,  More  wrote  a  book  in  Latin,  which  he  called 
Utopia,  or  "  Nowhere,"  in  which  he  called  attention  to  many  of 
the  bad  conditions  existing  in  Europe  at  that  time,  and  then 
described  a  fictitious  country  in  which  all  these  evils  had  been 
remedied.  The  criticism  was  too  outspoken  for  him  to  venture 
to  publish  his  book  in  England  or  to  issue  it  in  the  language  of 
the  people.  It  was  published  on  the  continent  and  remained  long 
untranslated.  In  some  directions,  however,  reforms  were  intro- 
duced of  the  sort  that  More  advocated.  Several  new  professor- 
ships and  some  new  colleges  were  endowed  at  the  universities. 
Linacre  became  tutor  to  the  prince  of  Wales,  and  physician  to  the 
king,  and  exercised  a  strong  influence  for  good  over  them.  John 
Colet  was  appointed  dean  of  St.  Paul's  at  London,  where  he 
founded  St.  Paul's  school,  by  his  private  means,  and  introduced 
into  it  new  methods  of  teaching  and  more  enlightened  ideas. 
New  text-books  were  prepared  for  the  boys,  and  men  interested  in 
humanistic  studies  were  appointed  as  their  teachers.  There  was 
more  effort  to  rouse  their  interest,  and  less  dependence  was  placed 
on  whipping.  Many  other  schools  were  also  founded  at  about  this 
time,  and  it  became  a  nearly  universal  custom  for  boys  and  girls 
of  the  higher  and  middle  classes  to  be  well  educated. 

251.  The  Introduction  of  Printing  into  England.  —  The  inven- 
tion of  printing  had  been  one  of  the  products  of  the  Renaissance. 
From  the  German  city  of  Mainz  the  new  invention  had  been  car- 
ried far  and  wide.  In  1476  William  Caxton,  an  Englishman,  who 
had  learned  to  print  in  the  Netherlands  from  one  of  the  early 
printers  there,  brought  a  press  and  type  to  England  and  set  up 


THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD        289 

a  small  printing  establishment  in  a  building  which  he  was  allowed 
by  Edward  IV  to  use  at  Westminster.  Here  he  proceeded  to  print 
books,  for  which  there  proved  to  be  an  abundant  demand.  Before 
his  death,  in  1491,  he  had  printed  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales, 
and  many  other  English  poems,  chronicles,  and  works  translated 
from  the  French  and  Latin.  Meanwhile  several  other  printing 
presses  had  been  established  in  England.  The  writings  of  the 
men  of  the  new  learning,  and  the  works  of  the  classical  authors 
whom  they  so  much  admired,  could  now  be  printed  and  circulated 
comparatively  cheaply  and  abundantly,  instead  of  being  only  slowly 
and  expensively  copied  by  hand  as  in  earlier  times.  This  cheap- 
ness and  abundance  of  books  increased  still  further  the  extension 

C  5^p%t)  anb  famfldfefc  out  of  fomffc  tn  to  *  tujtyfli?  tfc 
t>it)  Dag  of;3fupn  tfr  fere  of  oiu  toft  ffj  utj  C  \e&*\  I 


trb  ffcgj  Dag  of  ffjage  after/  tf 


Specimen  of  Caxton's  Printing  in  the  Year  1486 

of  education,  and  spread  the  habit  of  reading  among  a  far  wider 
class  of  the  people  than  before.  The  language  was  also  reduced 
to  much  greater  uniformity  by  the  work  of  Caxton  and  the  other 
early  printers. 

252.  Accession  of  Henry  VIII.  —  When  Henry  VII  died,  in  1509, 
his  son,  Henry  VIII,  came  into  a  rich  inheritance.  The  dispute 
about  the  succession  to  the  throne  had  been  settled,  the  king's 
position  was  independent  and  powerful,  the  treasury  was  well  filled, 
the  country  was  at  peace,  and  there  was  a  great  and  spreading 
interest  in  trade,  manufactures,  learning,  education,  and  art. 

Henry  VIII  was  well  suited  to  these  times.  He  was  only 
eighteen  years  old,  but  he  was  well  grown  and  handsome,  a  fine 
rider,  runner,  sportsman,  and  swordsman,  well  educated,  and  on, 


2QO  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

intimate  terms  with  the  best  men  of  the  time.  He  was  more  open- 
handed,  hearty,  and  good-humored  than  his  father,  and  he  came  to 
the  throne  without  any  bad  memories  of  struggle  behind  him. 
"  Bluff  King  Hal,"  the  nickname  by  which  he  has  been  called, 
reflects  his  manner  and  his  popularity,  during  the  earlier  part  of 
his  reign  at  least.  He  married  his  widowed  sister-in-law,  Catherine 
of  Aragon,  immediately  after  his  accession.  His  reign  lasted  for 
thirty-eight  years,  until  1547.  This  period  may  very  well  be  divided 
into  two  parts  :  the  early  years,  in  which  the  principal  events  were 

those  gathering  around  the 
policy  of  the  great  minister 
Wolsey ;  and  the  later  years, 
in  which  the  great  change 
known  as  the  Reformation  was 
in  progress. 

253.  Wolsey.  —  During  the 
first  fifteen  years  of  his  reign, 
Henry  took  comparatively  lit- 
tle part  in  the  work  of  the 
government.  Like  his  father 
he  chose  able  men  for  his 

ministers,  and  one   of  these 
Cardinal  Wolsey 

soon    came    into    practically 

complete  control  of  affairs.  This  was  Thomas  Wolsey.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  merchant  of  Ipswich,1  was  educated  at  Oxford, 
became  a  clergyman,  acted  as  tutor  to  the  sons  of  a  nobleman, 
traveled  on  the  continent,  and  then  came  to  the  court  of  Henry 
VII,  where  he  was  employed  in  various  services. 

When  Henry  VIII  succeeded  to  the  throne  he  found  Wolsey 
acting  as  king's  almoner,  a  member  of  the  council,  and  the  most 
active  and  able  of  the  ministers  and  advisers  who  had  been  in  his 

1  According  to  an  old  but  apparently  mistaken  tradition  his  father  was 
a  butcher.  His  low  birth  was  a  cause  of  reproach  and  difficulty  to  him  at 
the  time. 


THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD        291 

father's  service.  He  was  almost  twenty  years  older  than  the  young 
king,  and  was  eloquent,  witty,  full  of  ideas,  and  clear  and  bold  in 
the  expression  of  them.  He  was  ready  to  take  part  in  anything 
that  needed  to  be  done,  whether  it  was  to  plan  a  campaign  or  to 
arrange  a  dance  or  banquet. 

Wolsey  obtained  almost  complete  influence  over  Henry,  and 
for  many  years  he  was  the  most  trusted  adviser  of  the  king  and  in 
many  ways  the  practical  head  of  the  government.  He  was  a  man 
born  to  command,  and  he  forced  his  will  upon  every  one  but  the 
king.  To  him  he  was  ever,  in  case  of  a  difference  of  opinion,  the 
submissive  servant,  or  at  most  the  cautious  adviser.  He  obtained 
a  long  series  of  promotions  and  offices  which  brought  him  an  enor- 
mous income.  The  most  important  of  these  appointments  were  lord 
chancellor,  archbishop  of  York,  cardinal,  and  legate  of  the  pope. 
He  thus  held  the  highest  position  possible  for  an  English  subject  in 
the  state  and,  except  the  archbishopric  of  Canterbury,  in  the  church, 
besides  receiving  the  income  from  various  bishoprics,  abbeys,  and 
other  offices.  He  lived  in  a  style  to  correspond  to  his  position, 
having  from  two  hundred  to  six  hundred  persons  in  various  posi- 
tions as  servants  or  officials,  wearing  the  most  gorgeous  of  robes, 
and  giving  the  most  magnificent  banquets  and  entertainments. 

Wolsey's  life  was  a  very  busy  one,  fulfilling  his  duties  as  lord 
chancellor,  sitting  as  a  member  of  the  Court  of  Star  Chamber, 
holding  conferences  with  foreign  ambassadors,  reading  and  dic- 
tating letters,  attending  to  the  manifold  interests  of  his  position 
as  a  minister  and  churchman,  and  spending  besides  much  time 
with  the  king  at  his  business  or  at  his  pleasures.  His  haughty 
manners  and  arbitrary  actions  and  the  contrast  between  his  low 
origin  and  the  lofty  height  to  which  he  had  risen  made  him 
extremely  unpopular  with  the  nobles,  the  lawyers,  and  many 
other  influential  persons;  but  so  long  as  the  king  favored  him 
his  power  was  almost  as  unlimited  as  that  of  the  king  himself. 

254.  Foreign  Wars.  —  The  hope  of  the  reformers  of  the  time, 
that  universal  peace  could  be  brought  about,  —  a  hope  shared 


2Q2  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

by  Colet,  Erasmus,  More,  and  even  Wolsey, — was  sadly  disap- 
pointed. Not  only  were  there  great  wars  between  France,  Spain, 
and  many  lesser  states  of  the  continent,  but  the  English  king  and 
the  nobles  were  not  willing  to  look  on  and  take  no  part  in  them. 
Several  times  during  this  period  English  troops  fought  again  in 
France,  as  they  had  not  done  since  the  close  of  the  Hundred 
Years'  War,  and  Wolsey  and  the  king  were  continually  engaged 
in  arranging  and  rearranging  alliances.  In  1520  Charles  V  of 
Spain  visited  England  to  knit  still  closer  with  Henry  the  bonds 
which  had  bound  their  predecessors  in  an  alliance. 

A  similar  conference  between  Henry  and  Francis  I,  king  of 
France,  occurred  on  the  borders  of  the  English  possessions  in 
France  in  the  same  year  at  a  place  then  described  as  the  "  Field 
of  the  Cloth  of  Gold."  For  weeks  before  the  meeting  workmen 
were  busied  in  erecting  temporary  buildings  for  the  two  monarchs 
and  their  courts.  These  were  provided  with  the  most  gorgeous 
furniture,  hung  and  covered  with  the  richest  tapestry  of  silk  and 
cloth  of  gold  and  silver.  Then  for  two  weeks  the  two  kings  held 
court  there,  and,  with  a  vast  company  of  noblemen,  gentlemen, 
and  ladies  attending  on  the  two  queens,  feasted  and  held  tourna- 
ments, gave  magnificent  entertainments,  and  exchanged  visits, 
while  the  ministers  prepared  a  new  treaty. 

England's  position  in  foreign  affairs  seemed  to  be  a  high  one, 
for  her  alliance  was  continually  sought ;  but  her  allies  had  their 
own  objects  and  when  they  obtained  these  were  willing  to  give 
up  her  friendship.  The  English  therefore  obtained  little  but  hol- 
low glory  and  a  slight  extension  of  the  territory  around  Calais, 
while  the  cost  of  war  preparations,  along  with  the  other  expen- 
sive habits  of  the  king  and  court,  used  up  all  the  money  which 
Henry  VII  had  saved,  and  threw  into  disorder  the  arrangement  of 
the  finances  which  he  had  with  so  much  difficulty  perfected. 

255.  The  Amicable  Loan.  —  Parliament  was  called  very  sel- 
dom and  the  taxes  and  loans  it  authorized  were  soon  expended. 
Therefore,  when  the  king  and  his  advisers  determined  on  a  new 


THE   EARLY  TUDOR   PERIOD 


293 


war  and  invasion  of  France,  the  government  demanded  what  was 
called  an  "amicable  loan."  This  was  a  loan  which  each  man  was 
urged  to  make,  in  proportion  to  his  property,  with  but  small 
probability  of  its  ever  being  paid  back.  The  effort  to  collect  it 
caused  such  great  complaint  and  even  resistance  on  the  part  of 
the  people  that  the  attempt  was  given  up.  Wolsey  as  usual  took 
upon  himself  the  responsibility  for  having  suggested  the  loan  and 
obtained  the  hatred  of  the 
people  for  it.  The  king's 
own  popularity  with  all 
classes  during  the  whole 
of  this  period  of  his  reign 
remained  boundless. 

256.  The  Divorce  Ques- 
tion.—  By  1527,  however, 
a  new  question  was  arising 
which  was  destined  not  only 
to  occupy  much  of  the  pri- 
vate thoughts  and  interests 
of  the  king  for  several  years, 
but  to  exercise  an  enormous 
influence  upon  the  history 
of  the  whole  nation. 
Henry's  wife,  it  will  be  re-  Henry  VIII 

membered,  was   Catherine 

of  Aragon,  who  had  been  first  married  to  his  older  brother  Arthur 
just  before  that  prince's  death.  According  to  the  canon  law  a  man 
was  not  allowed  to  marry  his  brother's  widow.  The  pope,  how- 
ever, was  generally  considered  to  have  in  special  cases  a  right  to 
suspend  the  canon  law  in  respect  to  marriage,  if  there  was  sufficient 
reason  for  doing  so,  and  Henry  VII  had  obtained  from  him  a  dis- 
pensation which  permitted  the  marriage  of  Henry  and  Catherine 
to  take  place.  Moreover,  for  many  years  the  marriage  was  in  the 
main  a  happy  one.  But  all  the  children  which  were  born  died 


294  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

successively,  except  one,  Mary,  a  delicate  little  girl.  Gradually 
Henry  began  to  feel  some  doubts  as  to  whether  his  marriage  to 
his  brother's  widow  had  really  been  lawful.  He  was  extremely 
anxious  to  have  a  son  to  inherit  the  throne  after  him,  and  he 
feared  that  the  death  of  his  children  might  be  a  judgment  of  God 
upon  him  for  marrying  against  the  laws  which  religion  laid  down. 
He  therefore  began  to  think  of  separating  himself  from  Catherine. 

At  about  the  same  time  he  fell  deeply  in  love  with  Anne 
Boleyn,  one  of  Queen  Catherine's  ladies  of  honor.  Which  of 
these  sentiments,  doubt  as  to  the  legality  of  his  first  marriage  or 
the  wish  to  form  a  second  one,  came  first  will  never  be  known. 
Probably  Henry  himself  did  not  know.  But  he  soon  asked  from 
Wolsey  and  others  whether  his  marriage  had  been  legal  or  not. 
The  whole  question  depended  of  course  on  whether  the  pope  had 
been  justified  in  the  first  place  in  giving  the  dispensation  from 
ordinary  canon  law  when  it  was  asked  for  by  Henry's  father.  If 
so,  Catherine  was  legally  his  wife  and  he  could  not  marry  again 
during  her  lifetime.  If  not,  she  had  never  been  his  wife  accord- 
ing to  law,  and  he  was  at  liberty  to  marry  some  one  else  if  he 
chose.  Whatever  may  have  been  his  original  conscientious 
scruples,  Henry's  sole  wish  soon  came  to  be  to  obtain  a  divorce 
from  Catherine  and  to  marry  Anne  Boleyn.  To  this  object  he 
devoted  his  thoughts  and  directed  his  policy  for  several  years. 
With  all  his  brilliant  gifts,  his  abilities,  and  his  popularity,  Henry 
was  absolutely  selfish  and  heartless ;  and  no  consideration  of  old 
affection,  honor,  or  duty  could  deter  him  from  an  end  on  which  he 
had  set  his  heart. 

257.  Fall  of  Wolsey.  — Various  efforts  were  made  to  obtain  a 
decision  by  the  church  authorities  in  the  divorce  case.  It  was 
necessary  to  refer  the  question  to  Rome,  as  the  papal  tribunal  was 
the  court  which  gave  decisions  on  the  law  of  marriage.  Under 
the  laws  of  the  church,  however,  even  the  pope  himself  could 
not  grant  a  divorce  for  any  cause  whatever  if  the  king's  mar- 
riage to  Catherine  had  been  valid.  Year  after  year  now  passed  by 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD 


295 


and  the  question  remained  unsettled.  The  king,  becoming  suspi- 
cious that  Wolsey  was  not  doing  all  he  could  to  have  the  matter 
settled,  gradually  gave  less  of  his  confidence  to  his  great  minister, 
and  finally  in  1529  removed  him  from  his  offices  and  allowed  an 
action  of  Praemunire  to  be  brought  against  him  for  violations  of 
the  law  while  in  office.1 ,  In  the  hope  that  submission  would  ward 
off  further  penalties,  Wolsey  signed  a  general  confession  and 


Part  of  the  Palace  of  Hampton  Court  (built  by  Cardinal  Wolsey 
and  presented  to  Henry  VIII) 

acknowledgment  that  his  life  and  property  were  at  the  disposal  of 
the  king.  Henry  with  his  usual  heartlessness  seized  the  property 
of  his  fallen  minister  and  ordered  him  to  retire  to  his  religious 
duties.  There  are  few  greater  contrasts  in  history  than  that 
between  the  middle  and  the  last  years  of  the  great  cardinal. 

1  Wolsey  had  accepted  from  the  pope  an  appointment  as  legate  and  had 
acted  on  its  authority  in  several  matters  in  England.  He  had  thus  laid 
himself  open  to  a  charge  under  the  old  statutes  of  Praemunire.  See  p.  243. 


296  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Living  in  splendor  equal  to  that  of  a  king,  commanding  the  ser- 
vices of  officers  and  dependents  by  the  hundred,  occupied  with 
vast  plans  of  administration  and  reform  in  his  own  country,  and 
holding  in  his  hands  the  threads  of  a  diplomacy  that  extended 
throughout  Europe,  he  was  the  greatest  man  in  England,  save 
the  king  alone.  Then,  deprived  in  a  day  of  all  offices  except 
those  which  came  to  him  from  the  church,  and  almost  impover- 
ished, he  retired,  stunned  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  king's  support, 
to  a  little  country  house  just  outside  of  London,  whence  he  soon 
started  on  the  long  journey  to  York,  which  was  his  see  as  arch- 
bishop. In  less  than  a  year,  in  1530,  a  second  blow  fell  and  he 
was  summoned  southward  again  to  be  tried  for  treason.  Sick  and 
weary  he  made  his  way  by  slow  stages  toward  London  till,  unable 
to  proceed  farther,  he  stopped  at  the  abbey  of  Leicester  and  died 
there  within  a  few  days. 

258.  Submission  of  the  Clergy.  —  Henry  still  put  pressure 
upon  the  pope  to  give  a  favorable  decision  in  the  divorce  case. 
He  sent  embassy  after  embassy  to  him,  appealed  to  the  univer- 
sities of  Europe  to  give  an  opinion  on  the  matter,  threatened  to 
cut  off  the  payments  made  to  the  pope  from  England,  and  to 
put  an  end  to  the  papal  right  of  appointment  and  other  forms 
of  his  ecclesiastical  authority.  The  king  also  strengthened  his 
power  over  English  churchmen  and  the  weight  of  his  threats 
against  the  pope  by  causing  suit  to  be  brought  against  the  clergy 
for  illegal  obedience  to  Wolsey  when  he  acted  as  papal  legate. 
By  holding  a  prosecution  for  Praemunire  over  their  heads  he 
induced  the  convocation  of  the  clergy  in  1531  to  pay  a  heavy  fine, 
to  acknowledge  that  the  king  was  supreme  head  of  the  church 
as  well  as  of  the  civil  government  in  England,  to  hand  over  to 
the  king  for  revision  the  canons  of  the  church,  and  to  promise 
that  they  would  enact  no  new  canons  without  his  consent.  This 
action  is  known  as  the  "  Submission  of  the  Clergy."  But  even  yet 
the  pope  gave  no  decision  on  the  divorce  question,  although  the 
pressure  from  the  emperor  had  been  removed.. 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  297 

259.  Subserviency  of  Parliament.  —  In  1529  the  king  called  a 
new  meeting  of  parliament.    At  this  time  the  House  of  Lords  was 
made  up  of  noblemen,  bishops,  and  abbots,  most  of  whom  had 
been  raised  to  their  high  position  by  Henry  or  his  father;  the  House 
of  Commons  consisted  of  lawyers,  merchants,  and  country  gen- 
tlemen, many  of  whom  had  been  nominated  as  members  by  the 
privy  council  and  all  of  whom  belonged  to  the  middle  classes, 
which  had  been  so  much  favored  by  the  policy  of  the  Tudor  sov- 
ereigns.   Their  respect  for  the  crown  was  therefore  very  great, 
their  devotion  to  the  king  unlimited.     They  were  naturally  in- 
clined, therefore,  to  follow  the  king's  lead  and  meet  his  wishes. 
Even  if  they  had  not  felt  so  well  disposed  toward  him  resistance 
would  have  been  difficult.     The  power  of  the  crown  had  been 
rising  so  rapidly  under  Henry  VII  and  Henry  VIII  that  obedience 
had  become  a  habit.     The  interest  of  parliament  in  religion,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  very  slight.    The  sixteenth  century  in  England 
was  a  period  of  much  greater  interest  in  trade,  agriculture,  and 
manufactures,  in  learning,  art,  and  travel,  than  in  religion. 

Parliament  was  therefore  ready  to  pass  willingly  enough  almoat 
any  laws  on  church  matters  that  the  king  chose  to  ask  from  it. 
A  weapon  was  provided  to  the  hand  of  Henry  by  which,  as  he 
believed,  he  could  force  the  pope  to  grant  him  his  wishes. 

260.  The  Foundations  of  the  Reformation.  —  But  other  motives 
were  influencing  king,  parliament,  and  people,  and  making  changes 
in  the  old  religious  system  inevitable,  quite  apart  from  the  personal 
designs  of  the  king  and  the  subserviency  of  parliament. 

First,  the  civil  government  both  of  king  and  parliament  had 
been  rising  steadily  above  the  ecclesiastical  power.  Men  were 
no  longer  willing  to  give  to  churchmen  so  high  a  position  or  such 
wide  powers  as  they  had  held  during  the  middle  ages.  The  first 
step  of  the  English  Reformation  was  to  consist  in  reducing  the 
church  to  a  distinctly  inferior  position.  Secondly,  it  was  a  time 
when  men  were  influenced  by  strong  feelings  of  national  pride  and 
independence.  There  was  a  growing  dislike  of  foreign  interference 


298  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

or  control,  a  growing  desire  to  settle  all  English  questions  in 
England.  A  prohibition  of  the  pope's  interference  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  English  church  was  therefore  a  natural  and  popular 
measure.  Thirdly,  it  was  a  time  when  many  changes  were  in  prog- 
ress. Methods  of  farming  and  manufacturing,  houses,  clothes, 
food,  —  all  were  changing.  It  was  easy  for  changes  to  take  place 
in  religion  also.  Therefore  the  alterations  introduced  by  Henry 
VIII,  although  directed  in  the  first  place  toward  his  personal  ends, 
were  in  many  cases  the  natural  outcome  of  the  conditions  of  the 
time  and  would  have  soon  occurred  even  without  his  action. 

261.  The  Reformation  Statutes. — The  parliament  which  met 
in  1529  and  sat  in  successive  sessions  for  seven  years  has  been 
called  the  "  Reformation  Parliament."  It  began  by  making  a 
number  of  complaints  of  excessive  fees  in  church  courts  and  other 
abuses  in  the  church,  and  with  the  king's  consent  passed  laws 
to  correct  them.  Its  most  important  acts,  however,  were  those 
directed  against  the  authority  of  the  pope  over  the  church  in 
England.  Two  "Acts  of  Annates  "  were  passed  in  1532  and  1534 
cutting  off  all  money  payments  from  the  English  clergy  to  the 
pope.  In  1533  the  "Act  of  Appeals"  was  passed  forbidding  for 
the  future  any  appeals  from  the  church  courts  in  England  to  the 
papal  court,  even  in  cases  of  canon  law.  In  1534  a  law  was  passed 
putting  the  nomination  of  bishops  in  the  hands  of  the  king  and 
forbidding  any  communication  with  the  pope.  In  1535  the  "Act 
of  Supremacy  "  was  passed  giving  Henry  the  title  of  "  Supreme 
Head  on  earth  of  the  Church  of  England,"  and  giving  him  the 
same  power  to  regulate  the  church  of  England  that  he  already 
possessed  to  regulate  civil  affairs.  Several  other  laws  were  passed 
transferring  powers  formerly  exercised  by  the  pope  either  to  the 
king  or  to  English  church  officials,  and  it  was  ordered  that  the 
pope  should  be  referred  to  as  the  "  bishop  of  Rome,"  and  should 
have  no  more  power  in  England  than  any  other  foreign  bishop. 
One  by  one  the  bonds  which  had  united  the  church  of  England 
with  the  papacy  through  all  the  previous  Christian  centuries  had 


THE  EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  299 

now  been  broken,  until  there  was  no  connection  remaining.  The 
laws  which  were  passed  between  1530  and  1535  divided  it  as  an 
organization  from  the  general  body  of  the  Christian  church  and 
made  it  a  distinct  national  body. 

In  the  process  of  bringing  about  this  separation  the  English 
church  had  been  completely  subordinated  to  the  king.  Its  bishops 
were  named  by  him,  its  laws  could  only  be  adopted  with  his  con- 
sent, his  supremacy  over  it  had  been  formally  acknowledged.  It 
was  not  only  a  national  church  but  a  national  church  under  the 
control  of  the  king. 

262.  Decay  of  the  Monasteries.  —  Other  changes  were  bound 
to  follow  upon  these.  The  monasteries  were  peculiarly  open  to 
attack.  Of  these  groups  of  monks  or  nuns  of  various  orders,  each 
with  its  buildings  and  landed  property,  some  had  been  founded 
in  the  earliest  days  of  Christianity  in  England,  and  had  existed, 
therefore,  for  many  hundred  years ;  while  others  had  been  founded 
from  time  to  time  during  all  the  intervening  centuries.  Some 
were  large  and  wealthy,  while  others  were  of  every  size,  oftentimes 
mere  "  cells  "  or  branch  establishments  where  only  two  or  three 
persons  were  sent  from  one  of  the  larger  houses  to  live  together. 
They  had  had  a  great  history.  For  a  long  period  they  had  been 
prosperous  and  respected,  and  had  attracted  within  their  walls  or 
educated  in  their  midst  learned,  pious,  and  useful  men  and  women. 
But  there  is  little  doubt  that  this  period  of  prosperity  and  useful- 
ness was  to  a  great  extent  past.  Many  of  the  monastic  houses 
were  in  a  bad  financial  condition.  Their  lands  were  mortgaged, 
their  income  had  decreased,  and  their  buildings  were  out  of  repair. 
The  class  of  men  and  women  who  sought  admittance  to  them  was 
not  so  high  as  it  had  been.  There  were  many  ways  now  in  which 
a  man  might  live  a  life  of  intellectual  employment  as  a  teacher, 
lawyer,  writer,  or  otherwise  without  becoming  a  monk.  The 
belief  that  a  religious  life  could  best  be  led  by  withdrawing  from 
the  active  world  and  giving  one's  self  to  prayers,  devotional 
exercises,  and  self-denial  had  long  been  dying  out.  There  was 


300  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

much  to  criticise  in  the  actual  life  led  by  the  monks.  Their 
idleness  was  evident.  The  old  laws  requiring  labor,  study,  and 
other  services  from  them  were  but  poorly  enforced.  Many  stories, 
some  of  them  no  doubt  false,  others  true,  were  told  of  bad  lives 
led  by  monks  and  nuns  under  the  protection  of  their  privileged 
position  and  religious  reputation.  They  were  probably  no  worse 
than  other  men  and  women  of  their  time,  but  they  were  probably 
not  conspicuously  better,  while  more  might  fairly  be  expected  of 
them. 

Many  bishops  and  archbishops  tried  to  improve  the  declining 
condition  of  the  monasteries.  Others,  like  Wolsey,  had  obtained 
permission  from  the  king  and  the  pope  to  take  the  property  from 
some  of  the  poorest  and  smallest  of  them  and  to  use  it  for  the 
founding  of  schools,  colleges,  and  hospitals. 

263.  Cromwell  and  the  Dissolution  of  the  Monasteries.  —  Henry 
and  his  ministers  now  followed  a  bolder  plan,  and  one  more  attrac- 
tive to  the  avarice  of  the  king.  Since  the  fall  of  Wolsey  the  prin- 
cipal adviser  of  the  king  had  been  Thomas  Cromwell,  a  man  who 
had  been  one  of  Wolsey's  officers,  was  familiar  with  business 
methods,  had  traveled  much  abroad,  had  read  much,  was  deter- 
mined, unscrupulous,  and  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  king. 
Henry  and  Cromwell  shared  the  general  feeling  of  contempt  for 
the  monasteries,  feared  their  devotion  to  the  pope,  and  were  eager 
besides  to  get  possession  of  their  property  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
government.  Henry  determined,  therefore,  to  bring  about  their 
suppression  and  the  confiscation  to  the  crown  of  their  lands  and 
other  property. 

To  do  this  Cromwell,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the  king 
vicar-general  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  to  exercise  the  power  of  reg- 
ulation of  the  church  granted  to  the  king  by  the  Act  of  Suprem- 
acy, made  use  of  the  floating  stories  and  charges  of  immorality 
made  against  some  of  the  monasteries.  He  sent  out  a  group 
of  commissioners,  professedly  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of 
the  monasteries  and  report  upon  them,  but  really  instructed  to 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  301 

bring  back  sufficient  charges  against  them  to  justify  their  sup- 
pression. This  was  done  and  parliament  was  in  1536  induced 
to  pass  a  law  confiscating  the  property  and  dissolving  the  organ- 
ization of  more  than  three  hundred  of  the  smaller  monasteries. 
Some  of  the  larger  abbeys  were  then  attacked  on  the  ground  of 
the  treason  of  their  abbots  or  inmates.  Still  others  were  forced 


Ruins  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Mary  at  York 

or  persuaded  to  dissolve  themselves  and  hand  over  their  property 
to  the  king,  and  finally  in  1540  all  the  remaining  monasteries 
were  suppressed. 

The  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones  in  their  possession  were 
taken  to  the  royal  treasury  ;  the  lead,  stone,  and  glass  of  the  roofs, 
walls,  and  windows  were  sold  as  building  materials  ;  and  the  lands 
taken  into  the  possession  of  the  government  and  sold  or  given 
away  at  nominal  prices  to  courtiers  or  noblemen  and  gentlemen 
whom  the  king  wished  to  favor.  The  monks  and  nuns  were  in 
some  cases  sent  to  live  with  their  friends,  in  others  given  a  gov- 
ernment pension,  and  in  still  others  appointed  to  various  offices 


302 


A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


in  the  church.  The  abbots  of  course  ceased  to  be  members  of 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  was  no 
doubt  a  desirable  and  indeed  a  necessary  measure,  but  the  way 
in  which  it  was  carried  out  was  none  the  less  shameful. 

264.  Destruction  of  Relics  and  Shrines.  —  In  the  monasteries 
had  been  many  shrines,1  relics,  and  wonder-working  images,  to 
which  pilgrimages  had  been  made  for  centuries.  But  venera- 
tion for  these  on  the  part  of  the  people  had  long  been  waning. 
Many  of  the  more  intelligent  of  the  clergy  and  laity  alike  dis- 
believed in  any  benefits  or  special  merits  to  be  obtained  from 

worshiping  at  the 
shrines,  and  doubted 
the  genuineness  or  the 
sanctity  of  the  relics. 
When  the  monasteries 
were  destroyed,  there- 
fore, the  shrines  also 
were  dismantled,  their 
ornaments  seized  by  the 
government,  and  they 
and  their  contents  alike 
destroyed.  The  bones 
of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  objects  of  pious  veneration  for  almost 
four  centuries,  were  burned  and  scattered.  Other  relics  likewise 
were  destroyed,  in  many  cases  having  been  first  tested  and  shown 
to  be  fraudulent  in  the  sight  of  the  people.  Wooden  images  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  and  of  the  saints  were  in  many  cases  cut  to  pieces 
and  burned.  Pilgrimages  to  sacred  places  were  also  forbidden,  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  superstitious  and  disorderly. 

1  Shrines  were  stone  burial  vaults  built  above  ground,  often  beautifully 
ornamented  with  gold  and  precious  stones,  in  which  the  remains  of  the 
founder  of  the  abbey  or  of  some  other  saint  were  preserved.  Relics  were 
parts  of  the  body  of  some  saint  or  martyr,  or  objects  made  sacred  by  having 
been  used  by  them  during  life  or  blessed  since  death. 


Shrine  of  St.  Thomas  of  Hereford 


THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD         303 

265.  Execution  of  More  and  Fisher. —  These  changes  were  not 
carried  through  without  opposition.     When  Henry's  antagonism 
to  the  pope  became  manifest,  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  had  been 
in  the  service  of  the  crown  for  many  years  and  had  become  lord 
chancellor  on  Wolsey's  downfall,  resigned  in  1532.     The  Act  of 
Supremacy  provided   that  an   oath   to  accept   and  abide  by  it 
should  be  taken  by  every  one  who  should  be  asked  to  do  so,  and 
that  a  refusal  to  take  the  oath  should  be  considered  treason. 
When  More  was  asked  to  take  this  oath  he  refused,  on  grounds  of 
conscience ;  ancl  Fisher,  the  aged  bishop  of  Rochester,  another 
old  friend  of  Henry,  did  the  same.     They  were  both  brought  to 
trial  and  beheaded  as  traitors,  to  the  astonishment  and  disapproval 
of  all  Europe.     Many  others,  including  a  number  of  prominent 
ecclesiastics,  were  executed  for  treason  on  the  same  grounds  in 
the  year  1535.     The  pope  in  retaliation  excommunicated  Henry 
and  declared  him  deposed  from  the  throne.     Such  a  sentence, 
which  three  hundred  years  before  had  humbled  King  John,  had 
now  but  little  meaning  in  England,  and  there  was  no  serious 
probability  of  any  regard  being  paid  to  it. 

266.  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace.  —  Yet  among  both  the  gentry 
and  the  masses  of  the  people,  especially  in  the  more  distant  parts 
of  the  country,  the  abolition  of  the  pope's  authority,  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  monasteries,  and  the  tyranny  of  Cromwell,  led  to  more 
than  one  rebellion.    They  were  directed  not  so  much  against  the 
king  as  against  his  ministers,  but  as  there  was  no  standing  army 
in  England  they  were  a  great  danger  to  the  government.     The 
greatest  of  these  risings  was  a  revolt  in  Lincolnshire  and  York- 
shire, in  1536,  called  the  "  Pilgrimage  of  Grace."     The  king  was 
forced  to  promise  to  consider  the  petitions  of  the  rebels  in  a  new 
parliament  to  meet  in  the  north,  and  to  grant  pardon  to  them 
for  their  rebellion.     But  other  questions  besides  the  religious  one 
were  mingled  with  the  grievances  of  the  people,  and  the  rebels 
divided  on  these  and  ceased  to  be  dangerous.    The  king  broke  his 
promise,  and,  taking  advantage  of  a  later  opportunity,  obtained 


304  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  trial  and  execution  of  many  of  the  leaders  of  the  rising. 
Several  of  the  great  northern  nobles,  gentry,  and  abbots,  and  a 
great  number  of  lesser  men,  were  sent  to  the  block. 

267.  Ireland.  —  The  opposition  in  Ireland  to  the  Reformation 
was  even  greater  than  in  the  north  of  England,  but  that  country 
was  too  disunited  to  resist.  Since  the  conquest  under  Henry  II 
the  English  kings  had  used  the  title  "Lord  of  Ireland,"  had  kept 
a  representative  at  Dublin  ruling  over  the  Anglicized  district  known 
as  the  "  Pale,"  and  had  asserted  a  supremacy  over  the  native  chief- 
tains and  the  nobles  of  English  descent  who  held  estates  in  the 
more  distant  parts  of  the  country.  But  English  government  in 
Ireland  did  not  mean  much  until  the  time  of  Henry  VII.  He 
had  introduced  a  stronger  government  there  as  he  had  in  Eng- 
land. The  most  important  step  in  this  had  been  the  enactment 
by  the  Irish  parliament,  which  only  included  representatives  from 
the  Pale  but  bound  all  Ireland  by  its  acts,  of  the  law  known  as 
"  Poynings's  Law."  This  was  adopted  in  1494  and  provided  that  in 
future  no  act  should  be  introduced  into  the  Irish  parliament  until 
it  had  first  been  submitted  to  and  approved  by  the  king  and  the 
English  privy  council,  a  measure  which  subordinated  the  Irish 
parliament  entirely  to  England. 

Henry  VIII  put  down  a  rebellion  of  a  great  Anglo-Irish  family, 
the  Geraldines,  and  in  1526  sent  an  able  lord  deputy,  Lord 
Leonard  Grey,  to  Ireland  to  introduce  the  new  royal  supremacy 
in  the  church  and  to  strengthen  the  old  royal  supremacy  in  the 
state.  The  Irish  monasteries  were  suppressed  and  their  property 
confiscated,  relics  and  images  were  destroyed,  and  adherents  of 
the  new  system  placed  in  the  archbishoprics  and  bishoprics.  To 
the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people  these  changes  were  only  a  part 
of  the  tyranny  of  the  English  government.  They  not  only  did  not 
sympathize  with  the  Reformation,  but  they  probably  did  not  under- 
stand or  think  of  it  at  all.  No  alteration  had  taken  place  in  their 
opinions  or  practices,  except  such  as  had  been  forced  upon  them 
by  their  conquerors. 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR    PERIOD  305 

A  few  years  afterwards  Henry  took  the  new  title  of  "  King  of 
Ireland,"  and  by  that  title  he  was  acknowledged  in  a  parliament 
which  met  in  1541,  and  which  included  for  the  first  time  in  Irish 
history  the  native  chiefs  from  beyond  the  Pale. 

268.  Stag£SLjoi_tlieJReformatiog> — Three  steps  in  the  Refor- 
mation had  by  this  time  been  taken  in  England.  The  bishops  had 
been  humbled  before  the  king,  the  church  of  England  was  sepa- 
rated from  Rome,  and  the  monasteries  had  been  destroyed.  But 
it  was  no  part  of  the  wish  or  intention  of  Henry  and  his  principal 
advisers  that  changes  should  go  farther.  The  English  Reforma- 
tion as  a  whole  may  be  said  to  consist  of  six  principal  changes  : 
(i)  the  subordination  of  church  to  state,  (2)  the  separation  from 
the  papacy,  (3)  the  abolition  of  monasteries,  (4)  the  common  use 
of  the  Bible  and  of  church  services  in  English,  (5)  the  simplifi- 
cation of  ceremonies,  and  (6)  the  adoption  of  Protestant  doctrines. 
Only  the  first  three  or  at  most  four  of  these  were  in  accordance 
with  the  desires  of  Henry  VIII.  He  wished  that  the  changes 
should  stop  with  the  ecclesiastical  independence  of  England,  his 
own  control  of  the  English  church,  the  destruction  of  the  monas- 
teries, and  perhaps  the  translation  of  the  Bible  and  some  parts  of 
the  prayer  book  into  English. 

To  make  plain  the  fact  that  the  doctrinal  beliefs  of  the  church 
of  England  were  to  be  the  same  as  they  had  always  been,  various 
proclamations  were  issued  from  time  to  time  to  declare  and  explain 
these  beliefs.  The  most  decisive  of  these  was  the  "  Act  of  the 
Six  Articles,"  approved  by  parliament  and  issued  in  1539,  in  which 
the  principal  doctrines  of  the  old  church  were  reannounced,  and 
death  declared  the  penalty  for  disbelief  in  them.  Thus  far  was 
the  Reformation  to  go  and  no  farther. 

Yet  change  was  in  the  air.  New  religious  teachings  were  being 
brought  into  England  from  Germany  and  other  continental  coun- 
tries. The  "  new  learning  "  had  set  men  to  thinking,  to  criti- 
cising, and  to  planning  for  improvement.  The  king  himself  and 
many  of  the  clergy  were  more  or  less  under  the  influence  of  the 


306  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

spirit  of  the  times,  which  called  for  more  reasonable  grounds  for 
beliefs  than  the  mere  fact  that  they  had  always  been  held. 

It  was  not  probable,  therefore,  that  religious  faith  would  remain 
as  it  had  been,  now  that  the  English  church  was  no  longer  bound 
to  retain  uniformity  with  the  rest  of  the  Christian  church.  During 
the  middle  ages  the  church  of  England  had  been  bound  to  the 
general  system  of  European  church  belief,  organization,  and  prac- 
tice. Now  by  the  breach  with  the  papacy  it  had  been  freed  from 
Roman  Catholic  traditions,  and  become  subject  to  all  the  winds 
and  tides  of  the  thought  of  the  time. 

269.  Growth  of  Protestant  Belief. — Acts  of  parliament  and 
proclamations  of  the  king  were  therefore  not  sufficient  to  put  a 
stop  to  changes  in  belief  that  were  taking  place  quite  apart  from 
the  intentions  or  desires  of  the  government.  More  and  more  men 
were  coming  to  hold  religious  views  very  different  from  those  taught 
by  the  old  church  or  by  the  Six  Articles.  The  Protestant  teach- 
ings of  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  other  reformers  in  Germany  were  gain- 
ing acceptation  in  England.  Many  men  were  thinking  religious 
problems  out  for  themselves  and  were  coming  to  conclusions  far 
different  from  the  beliefs  authorized  by  law. 

At  the  very  time  that  parliament  and  the  king  were  passing 
laws  to  preserve  England  in  the  old  faith,  various  young  scholars 
at  the  universities,  tradesmen  in  London  and  other  cities,  obscure 
priests,  and  others,  mostly  of  the  middle  or  lower  classes,  were 
adopting  a  very  different  faith.  Some  of  these  went  abroad,  had 
tracts  and  religious  books  which  taught  Protestant  views  printed 
at  Antwerp  and  elsewhere,  brought  them  back  to  London,  and 
distributed  them  through  the  country.  One  of  the  most  influen- 
tial of  these  Protestants  was  Tyndale,  a  scholar  successively  at  the 
two  English  universities,  next  a  preacher  in  London,  and  then  a 
student  in  Wittenberg  under  Luther.  There  he  translated  the  New 
Testament  into  English,  added  to  it  much  of  his  own  explanation 
of  its  meaning,  and  had  it  printed  and  conveyed  in  as  large  num- 
bers as  possible  into  England.  Even  among  the  king's  advisers  and 


THE   EARLY  TUDOR   PERIOD  307 

the  higher  clergy  many  were  influenced  by  the  new  teachings  and 
the  new  direction  of  thought.  Cromwell,  Archbishop  Cranmer, 
and  Bishop  Larimer  were  conspicuous  representatives  of  this  class 
of  men  who  were  subjecting  old  doctrines  and  old  customs  to  new 
criticism,  and  were  coming  to  feel  the  desirability  of  further  changes. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  therefore, 
men  were  divided  in  religious  matters  into  three  classes.  There 
were  in  the  first  place  the  vast  number  who  disapproved  of  all 
the  recent  religious  changes ;  secondly,  there  were  those  who 
approved  of  the  changes  which  had  been  made  but  did  not  wish 
them  carried  farther ;  thirdly,  there  were  the  reformers  who  would 
gladly  have  carried  the  Reformation  to  greater  lengths,  but  were 
prevented  from  doing  so  by  the  policy  of  the  king  and  the  influ- 
ence of  those  who  were  opposed  to  further  changes. 

270.  The  Scriptures  in  English.  —  The  only  advances  which 
were  made  during  the  last  eight  years  of  Henry's  reign  were  in 
the  fourth  of  the  points  just  enumerated,  —  the  greater  use  of 
the  common  language  of  the  people  in  the  church  services.  In 
1526  Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New  Testament  had  been 
secretly  imported.  It  was  disapproved  and  condemned  by  the 
church  authorities,  partly  because  of  expressions  used  in  the  trans- 
lation and  of  Protestant  explanations  given  in  footnotes  and  intro- 
duction, and  partly  because  of  the  old  objection  to  the  common 
people  reading  the  Bible  without  explanation.  A  few  years  later, 
however,  in  1537,  when  a  translation  of  the  whole  Bible,  based 
partly  on  one  made  by  Coverdale,  partly  upon  Tyndale's,  was 
brought  into  England,  its  use  was  encouraged  by  Cromwell,  and 
the  king  ordered  that  a  copy  should  be  placed  in  every  parish 
church,  to  be  read  by  the  people.  A  year  afterwards  all  prohi- 
bition against  the  people  reading  it  in  their  own  houses  was  taken 
away,  and  in  1539  a  new  translation  known  as  the  "  Great  Bible  " 
was  authorized  and  issued  by  the  government. 

Much  the  same  change  was  in  progress  in  the  forms  of  private 
and  public  prayer.  The  "  primer  "  or  collection  of  private  prayers 


308  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

had  been  long  used  in  English,  but  a  new  and  authorized  form  was 
now  issued.  All  parts  of  the  Scriptures  which  were  read  in  the 
church  services  were  put  into  English,  and  in  1544  Cranmer  com- 
posed a  new  litany l  to  be  said  in  the  language  of  the  people. 

But  no  changes  of  doctrine  were  allowed.  In  the  eyes  of  the 
king,  of  his  most  influential  advisers,  and  of  the  majority  of  the 
higher  clergy,  the  new  beliefs  coming  to  be  so  largely  held  were 
still  heresy.  Those  who  believed  in  them  were  from  time  to  time 
brought  to  trial,  and  several  were  burned  at  the  stake.  Many 
more  were  imprisoned,  frightened  into  denying  their  beliefs,  or 
forced  to  go  into  exile  in  foreign  countries. 

271.  The  King's  Marriages.  —  Henry's  private  life,  if  a  king 
can  be  said  to  have  a  private  life,  was  not  happy.  While  the  eccle- 
siastical changes  which  have  been  described  were  in  progress  he 
had  carried  out  the  personal  objects  which  had  led  him  into  con- 
flict with  the  old  church.  When  the  delay  of  the  pope  to  grant 
the  divorce  had  gone  on  for  five  years,  and  parliament  was  about 
to  pass  the  Statute  of  Appeals,  Henry  took  things  into  his  own 
hands,  married  Anne  Boleyn,  and  referred  the  question  of  the 
legality  of  his  previous  marriage  to  a  church  court  made  up  of 
English  clergymen.  This  court,  presided  over  by  the  new  arch- 
bishop, Cranmer,  decided  that  the  king  had  never  been  legally 
married  to  Catherine,  and  that  his  recent  marriage  to  Anne  was 
therefore  legal.  The  pope  thereupon  gave  his  decision  to  the 
contrary ;  but  according  to  the  Statute  of  Appeals  this  decision 
had  no  force  in  England.  Henry  and  Anne  had  one  daughter, 
the  future  Queen  Elizabeth,  but  they  were  not  happy  together. 
Henry  came  to  believe  her  guilty  of  a  base  crime,  and  for  this  she 
was  in  1535  divorced,  tried,  convicted,  and  beheaded.  The  day 
after  the  execution  of  Anne,  Henry  married  a  lady  named  Jane 
Seymour,  who  later  bore  a  son  who  became  Edward  VI.  She 
died  within  a  year  of  her  marriage.  Henry  was  afterwards  three 

1  The  litany  was  a  series  of  responsive  prayers  to  be  recited  in  the  reli- 
gious processions  of  priest  and  people. 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  309 

times  married,  two  of  these  wives  successively  being  divorced.1 
Cromwell,  who  had  been  principal  minister  for  ten  years  after 
the  fall  of  Wolsey,  gradually  lost  the  king's  confidence.  In  1540 
the  many  enemies  whom  he  had  made  in  carrying  out  the  king's 
despotic  policy  brought  about  his  downfall  by  carrying  through 
parliament  a  bill  of  attainder  against  him. 

272.  Close  of  the  Reign.  — Henry's  health  was  bad  during  his 
later  life,  and  he  became  so  stout  that  he  could  hardly  ride  or 
even  walk.     He  became  steadily  more  tyrannical.     The  funda- 
mental selfishness  of  his  character,  increased  by  bodily  discomfort, 
personal  unhappiness,  and  the  sense  of  failure  in  many  of  his 
schemes,  made  him  an  irritable,  harsh,  and  capricious  ruler  through- 
out all  these  later  years,  though  his  mental  vigor  never  left  him. 
In  the  course  of  his  reign  he  had  brought  about  or  approved  the 
execution  of  two  of  his  most  devoted  ministers,  More  and  Crom- 
well, and  the  disgrace  and  unhappiness  of  a  third,  Wolsey.    Besides 
his  disavowal  of  Catherine,  he  had  caused  the  execution  of  two 
wives,  of  many  of  the  highest  nobility,  some  of  them  blood  rela- 
tives, of  a  score  of  churchmen  of  high  dignity,  and  of  a  large 
number  of  lesser  men.     It  is  true  that  these  men  and  women  had 
been  declared  guilty  of  rebellion,  treason,  or  other  serious  offenses. 
But  many  of  the  laws  under  which  they  suffered  were  newly  made 
for  Henry's  benefit,  and  he  was  responsible  for  their  harsh  admin- 
istration.    Notwithstanding  his  early  popularity,  his  great  abilities, 
his  leadership  in  the  Reformation,  his  preservation  of  national 
peace  and  order,  and  his  long,  masterful  reign,  there  was  a  general 
sigh  of  relief  when  in  1547  his  death  occurred. 

273.  The  Succession  to  the  Crown.  —  There  had  been  so  much 
confusion  about  the  legitimacy  of  Henry's  children,  and  uncertainty 

1  Henry's  fourth  wife  was  Anne  of  Cleves,  daughter  of  one  of  the 
Protestant  princes  of  the  continent.  She  was  divorced  from  Henry  by 
mutual  agreement.  His  fifth  wife  was  Catherine  Howard,  who  was  guilty 
of  misconduct,  divorced,  and  beheaded.  His  sixth  wife  was  Catherine  Parr, 
who  outlived  him. 


310  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

as  to  their  right  to  the  inheritance,  that  parliament  had  passed  a 
special  act  giving  him  the  right  to  provide  in  his  will  for  the  suc- 
cession to  the  crown.  In  accordance  with  this  act  of  parliament 
he  left  instructions  that  his  son  Edward  should  succeed  him  and 
pass  the  crown  down  to  his  children,  if  he  should  have  any.  If 
he  had  none,  it  was  to  go  to  his  elder  sister  Mary  and  to  her 
children.  If  she  also  should  die  without  children,  it  should  go  to 
Elizabeth.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  each  of  Henry's  children  reigned 
in  succession  and  all  died  without  heirs. 

274.  The  Protectorate. — The  young  king  Edward  VI  was  a 
boy  of  ten,  and  provision  had  therefore  been  made  in  his  father's 
will  for  the  government  to  be  carried  on  by  a  council  in  his  name. 
This  plan,  however,  was  immediately  changed  and  the  powers  of 
government  given  to  the  king's  uncle,  the  duke  of  Somerset,  with 
the  title  "Protector."     From  1547  to  1549  the  government  was 
practically  in  his  hands,  and  for  the  remaining  three  years  of  the 
king's  life,  in  the  hands  of  a  successor  in  a  similar  position,  the 
duke  of  Northumberland.     The  king  never  came  to  rule  at  all, 
though  he  was  very  precocious,  and  in  the  last  two  years  of  his  life, 
when  he  was  fourteen  and  fifteen,  he  took  a  great  interest  in  affairs 
of  government  and  discussed  matters  of  state  with  his  council. 

275.  The  Advance  of  Protestantism. — The  most  serious  ob- 
stacle in   the  way  of  the  continuance  of  the  Reformation  was 
removed  by  Henry's  death.     Somerset  was  one  of  those  who  had 
favored  further  changes,  and  he  now  threw  himself  into  the  work 
of  carrying  them  out.    Some  of  the  bishops  who  opposed  his  plans 
were  removed,  and  advanced  reformers  were  put  in  their  places. 
The  fourth  step  of  the  Reformation  before  described  was  now  car- 
ried to  completion.    A  prayer  book  entirely  in  English  was  pre- 
pared by  Archbishop  Cranmer  and  others  of  the  clergy,  approved 
by  parliament  in  1549,  and  ordered  to  be  used  in  all  the  churches. 
It  was  reissued  in  a  modified  form  two  years  afterward  and  has 
ever  since  been  used,  with  but  few  further  changes,  in  the  church 
of  England  and  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church  in  America. 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  311 

Other  changes  in  the  forms  of  worship  and  in  religious  customs 
were  introduced  rapidly.  Partly  by  voluntary  action  of  various 
congregations  and  parish  authorities,  partly  by  authoritative  com- 
mands issued  by  Somerset,  what  has  been  described  above  as  the 
fifth  step  of  the  Reformation  was  now  taken.  Crucifixes  and 
the  images  of  saints  were  generally  removed  from  their  niches  in 
the  churches,  melted  down  when  they  were  of  metal,  burned 
when  they  were  of  wood,  and  broken  when  they  were  of  stone. 
The  stained-glass  windows  on  which  were  pictured  the  figures  of 
Christ,  the  apostles,  and  the  saints  were  destroyed.  The  emblem- 
atic religious  pictures  on  the  walls  of  the  churches  were  plastered 
or  whitewashed  over.  The  use  of  holy  water  was  given  up.  Clergy- 
men abandoned  the  use  of  colored  robes  at  the  services  and  fre- 
quently even  of  the  white  gown.  Fasting  was  generally  dispensed 
with,  clergymen  were  allowed  to  marry,  penance  was  no  longer 
imposed,  and  pilgrimages  were  prohibited. 

276.  The  Completion  of  the  Reformation. — The  Reformation 
passed  rapidly  on  to  its  last  stage,  that  of  alteration  of  religious 
beliefs.  Doctrine  had  been  slowly  modified  during  the  last  few 
years  as  practice  was  changed.  In  1548  the  Act  of  the  Six  Articles 
was  repealed  and  in  the  second  prayer  book  most  points  of  doc- 
trine were  put  in  a  thoroughly  Protestant  form.  In  1553  all  these 
theological  matters  were  put  into  a  set  of  forty-two  articles  which 
were  adopted  by  Parliament  and  declared  to  be  the  religious 
beliefs  of  the  English  church.  These,  in  the  form  of  the  "  Thirty- 
nine  Articles,"  became,  like  the  prayer  book,  a  permanent  part 
of  the  English  church  system. 

The  changes  of  this  period  of  the  Reformation,  like  the  earlier 
steps,  were  carried  through  largely  by  the  government.  Many 
of  the  people  welcomed  them  heartily  and  approved  of  all  that 
was  done.  Many  others  disapproved  of  them  entirely  and  would 
gladly  have  returned  to  the  old  ways.  The  great  proportion  of  the 
people,  however,  either  from  indifference  or  because  they  held 
more  moderate  opinions,  felt  themselves  to  be  somewhere  between 


312  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

these  two  extremes.  Nevertheless  the  government  insisted  that 
all  the  people  should  conform  to  the  law  in  religious  matters  just 
the  same  as  in  all  others.  In  1552  an  Act  of  Uniformity  was 
passed  ordering  that  the  official  prayer  book  should  be  used  in 
all  churches.  No  clergyman  was  allowed  to  use  the  old  mass  or 
any  other  form  of  worship  than  that  established  by  law ;  and  all 
persons  were  required  on  Sundays  and  holy  days  to  attend  their  par- 
ish churches  where  this  service  was  used.  Homilies  or  approved 
sermons  explaining  the  doctrines  and  moral  teachings  of  the  church 
were  also  prepared  and  ordered  to  be  read  by  ministers  in  the 
churches. 

Thus  in  outward  form  at  least  there  had  been  introduced  a 
complete  organization  of  Protestantism  in  place  of  the  old  Roman 
Catholic  faith. 

277.  Dissolution  of  the  Chantries.  —  Another  break  with  the 
past  was  made  in  the  time  of  Edward  VI  by  the  abolition  of  all 
chantries  and  their  services.  Men  had  from  time  to  time  during 
several  centuries  bequeathed  to  trustees  certain  property,  the 
income  from  which  was  to  be  used  to  support  a  priest  to  say 
daily  and  anniversary  masses,  to  keep  a  candle  burning  before  the 
shrine  of  some  saint,  to  give  alms  to  poor  people,  to  support  a 
schoolmaster,  or  to  fulfill  other  pious  requirements.  Such  a 
bequest  was  called  a  chantry.  In  some  towns  there  were  whole 
rows  of  houses  held  by  the  town  authorities,  by  chaplains,  or  other 
trustees,  who  rented  them  out  and  used  the  income  thus  obtained 
for  the  purposes  required  in  the  wills  of  the  founders.  Many  of 
the  old  craft  gilds  also  possessed  property  with  which  they  kept  up 
chantries,  and  in  other  cases  religious  gilds  were  specially  formed 
by  poor  persons  who  each  contributed  a  small  sum  for  the  pur- 
pose of  supporting  a  priest  who  should  say  commemorative  masses 
for  the  souls  of  the  contributors. 

In  the  later  years  of  Henry  VIII,  property  which  had  been  left 
by  will  for  religious  purposes  was  coming  to  be  looked  upon  as 
fair  game  by  the  government  and  by  influential  courtiers.  Many 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD 


313 


of  the  trustees  of  such  funds  were  showing  the  same  disregard  for 
the  wishes  of  the  founders  by  betraying  their  trusts  and  either 
using  the  income  from  the  property  in  their  hands  for  their  own 
purposes  or  diverting  it  to  different  uses  from  those  for  which  it 
was  intended.  Just  before  Henry's  death,  therefore,  a  law  was 
passed  authorizing  him  to  take  possession  of  these  endowments, 
just  as  had  been  done  in  the  case  of  the  monasteries,  and  to  use 
their  income  for  educational  and  other  purposes. 

Henry's  death  prevented  any  action  being  taken  under  this  law, 
but  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI  the  same  act  was 
renewed.  It  was  declared  that  the  offering  up  of  prayers  for  the 
souls  of  the  dead,  the  burning  of  candles  before  the  shrines  of 
saints,  and  the  hallowing  of  private  chapels  were  superstitious 
and  unchristian  practices,  and  that  the  property  possessed  by 
chantries  and  devoted  to  these  uses  should  be  confiscated  to  the 
government.  Immediate  steps  were  taken  to  carry  this  out. 
The  old  memorial  services  and  celebrations  came  to  an  end  as 
completely  as  had  the  monasteries,  and  some  two  thousand  chantry 
priests  ceased  to  perform 
their  old  duties  but  re- 
ceived small  pensions 
from  the  government  to 
recompense  them  for  the 
salaries  of  which  they 
had  been  deprived. 

278.  Schools.  —  The 
chantries  had  performed 
other  duties  along  with 
their  religious  services. 
Some  had  distributed 

alms  to  a  certain  number  of  poor  persons.  Some  had  provided  for 
the  support  of  one  or  more  schoolmasters  to  give  free  instruction. 
These  duties  the  government  now  undertook  to  perform  or  to  pro- 
vide for  by  the  return  of  a  proportionate  part  of  the  endowments 


A  Fifteenth-Century  Grammar  School 
at  Taunton 


314  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

which  had  been  confiscated.  A  promise  was  also  given  to 
devote  a  portion  of  the  money  before  used  for  the  support  of 
priests  to  the  support  of  schools.  This  duty  was  only  partially 
carried  out.  Many  if  not  all  of  the  schools  formerly  kept  up  by 
the  chantries  were  reestablished  by  the  government  and  their  old 
endowments  returned  to  them ;  but  the  confusion  of  the  times 
and  the  difficulties  of  the  government  prevented  any  proper 
attention  to  the  support  and  encouragement  of  the  reorganized 
schools,  and  much  of  the  funds  secured  from  the  chantries  was 
wasted  or  used  for  very  different  purposes.  At  about  the  same 
time,  however,  a  number  of  new  schools  were  established  and 
endowed  by  private  persons,  and  the  reign  of  Edward  VI  has 
always  been  looked  back  to  as  a  time  of  the  founding  or  refound- 
ing  of  schools. 

279.  Inclosures. — The  period  of  the  early  Tudors  was  one  in 
which  many  other  fundamental  changes  besides  the  Reformation 
were  in  progress.  The  country  districts  underwent  a  complete 
transformation.  During  the  middle  ages  England  had  been  in 
the  main  a  country  of  small  peasant  farmers,  each  raising  enough 
grain,  farm  animals,  and  other  products  to  feed  and  clothe  his 
family,  and  perhaps  a  little  more  to  sell.  Whether  he  was  a 
villein  or  a  freeholder  his  acres  were  few,  scattered  around  in  the 
open  fields  of  the  village,  and  devoted  to  the  usual  round  of 
crops.  At  the  other  extreme  in  size  were  the  great  farms  of  the 
lords  of  manors,  differing  but  little  in  the  distribution  of  the  acre 
strips  of  which  they  were  composed,  the  crops  raised  upon  them, 
and  their  methods  of  agriculture  from  the  small  farms,  but  much 
larger  and  carried  on  by  stewards  with  the  forced  or  hired  labor 
of  the  peasantry,  or  by  tenants  who  had  taken  the  demesne  on 
lease  from  the  lord  of  the  manor.1 

Another  class  of  farmers,  however,  was  now  coming  into  exist- 
ence. They  were  those  who  rented  considerable  amounts  of 
land  from  the  lords  of  the  manors  and  introduced  new  methods 
1  See  pp.  200-203  and  p.  245. 


THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD         315 

of  farming  upon  them.  The  principal  use  to  which  these  larger 
farms  were  put  was  the  raising  of  sheep  in  large  numbers  for 
their  wool.  In  order  to  raise  sheep  to  advantage  the  farmers 
needed  a  large  tract  of  land  in  one  stretch.  This  was  impossible 
so  long  as  the  land  lay  in  the  old  scattered  strips,  so  they  induced 
the  landlords  to  evict  large  numbers  of  small  farmers  and  rent  the 
land  to  them  for  their  sheep  farms.  The  sheep  farmers  inclosed 
with  hedges  the  large  fields  thus  obtained,  instead  of  allowing 
them  to  lie  open  and  unfenced  as  had  before  been  customary. 
They  also  inclosed  large  parts  of  the  open  commons,  which  had 
before  been  used  by  the  small  farmers  and  country  laborers  for 
pasturing  their  animals. 

280.  Evil  Results  of  the  Inclosures.  —  As  a  result  of  these 
inclosures  and  of  the  evictions  great  numbers  of  small  farmers 
found  themselves  without  occupation.  Farm  laborers  also  lost 
their  employment;  since  sheep  raising  requires  very  few  hands. 
The  small  farmers  found  no  other  land  and  the  laborers  found 
no  demand  for  their  services  in  other  places,  since  the  same  thing 
was  going  on  throughout  much  of  England.  Men  who  had  been 
thrifty  small  farmers  were  often  driven  with  their  families  to  become 
paupers  and  vagabonds.  All  the  inhabitants  of  a  country  village 
were  sometimes  forced  to  give  up  the  homes  that  they  and  their 
forefathers  had  occupied ;  the  houses  soon  disappeared ;  the 
church  became  a  ruin ;  and  there  was  nothing  left  but  a  sheep- 
cot  and  a  few  herdsmen's  hovels.  The  new  farmers  were  of 
course  growing  wealthy  from  the  greater  profits  of  sheep  farming, 
and  the  landowners  from  the  higher  rents  that  were  being  paid ; 
there  was  also  abundance  of  wool  produced  for  use  in  weaving  and 
for  export.  But  these  gains  were  made  at  the  cost  of  much  loss 
and  suffering  to  the  small  farmers  or  yeomen. 

Inclosures  had  been  in  progress  since  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  and  went  on  more  and  more  rapidly  through  the  early 
part  of  the  sixteenth.  The  lands  which  were  confiscated  from  the 
monasteries  and  sold  or  given  to  the  courtiers  of  Henry  VIII  were 


316  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

very  generally  inclosed  in  this  way  for  sheep  farming  by  their 
owners  or  by  those  to  whom  they  were  rented,  and  the  old  tenants 
upon  them  had,  as  in  other  cases,  to  be  turned  out.  The  general 
cry  of  misery,  the  fear  of  a  decrease  in  the  population,  and  the 
dislike  of  changes  early  attracted  the  attention  of  the  govern- 
ment to  inclosures,  and  successive  laws  intended  to  prevent  them 
were  passed  by  parliament.  The  laws,  however,  proved  ineffective. 
Other  voices  were  also  raised  against  the  inclosures.  Writers  and 
preachers  charged  the  landlords,  large  farmers,  and  capitalists 
with  harsh,  unjust,  and  unchristian  dealing,  and  appealed  to  them 
to  consider  the  sufferings  of  the  poor.  But  the  inclosures  still 
went  on,  with  all  the  advantages  which  they  brought  to  the  class 
of  landowners  and  large  farmers,  and  all  their  evils  to  the  small 
farmers  and  laborers. 

281.  The  Protector's  Favor  to  the  Poor. — These  conditions 
were  at  their  height  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  The  Protector, 
Somerset,  along  with  a  group  of  reformers,  now  determined  to 
put  a  stop  to  inclosures  by  enforcing  the  laws  which  had  already 
been  passed  or  by  securing  the  passage  of  still  stronger  laws.  A 
commission  was  therefore  appointed  to  go  from  county  to  county 
to  inquire  into  the  matter  and  to  prosecute  those  who  had  violated 
the  laws  against  inclosures.  The  commissioners  found  their  task 
a  hard  one.  They  were  met  with  every  kind  of  opposition.  Juries 
were  afraid  to  convict  wealthy  landlords  or  influential  large  farmers, 
witnesses  were  threatened  or  attacked,  and  the  laws  were  evaded 
in  numberless  ways.  Even  members  of  parliament,  judges,  and 
members  of  the  privy  council  resisted  the  enforcement  of  the  laws 
and  opposed  the  designs  of  the  Protector. 

In  1549  the  peasantry,  already  excited  and  displeased  by  the 
sudden  changes  of  the  Reformation,  resentful  at  the  evictions  and 
loss  of  occupation,  stirred  with  the  prospect  of  reforms  and  yet 
made  desperate  by  the  opposition  to  them,  rose  in  revolt  almost 
simultaneously  in  several  parts  of  England.  The  Protector, 
although  he  sympathized  with  their  grievances  and  at  first  treated 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  317 

them  leniently,  had  at  last  to  use  military  force.  There  was  a 
bitter  struggle  in  which  several  thousand  men  were  killed,  and 
the  rebels  were  only  put  down  with  great  difficulty. 

282.  Fall  of  Somerset.  — Those  who  were  opposed  to  Somerset's 
policy  of  favor  to  the  common  people,  those  who  felt  that  he  had 
failed  in  his  larger  plans,  and  some  members  of  the  council  who 
were  jealous  of  his  power,  took  advantage  of  this  opportunity  to 
organize  an  opposition  party  and  Call  for  his  resignation  of  the 
office  of  Protector.  This  he  gave  when  he  found  that  he  had  no 
sufficient  party  of  supporters.  The  most  influential  position  in 
the  council  which  governed  in  the  name  of  the  young  king  was 
now  taken  by  the  duke  of  Northumberland,  who  did  not,  however, 
take  the  title  of  Protector.  Somerset  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower 
of  London,  then  released  for  a  while,  but  afterwards  tried  for 
conspiracy  against  his  successor  and  executed  on  the  charge  of 
treason. 

The  effort  to  enforce  the  laws  against  inclosures  fell  with  Som- 
erset, at  least  for  the  time.  The  great  difficulty  was  that  exactly 
the  class  which  was  most  influential  in  government  and  social  life  at 
this  time  —  the  country  gentry  and  the  wealthy  merchants  of  the 
towns  —  was  the  class  which  was  most  interested  in  seeing  the 
changes  in  the  use  of  the  land  carried  on,  because  it  increased 
their  rents  and  their  profits.  Most  of  the  laws  of  this  period  were 
in  favor  of  this  class,  and  those  which  were  opposed  to  their  inter- 
ests, like  those  directed  against  inclosures,  could  not  be  enforced. 

The  movement,  therefore,  still  went  on,  though  it  gradually  came 
to  cause  less  distress.  More  of  the  inclosing  came  to  be  for 
improved  grain  farming  rather  than  for  sheep  raising ;  the  increase 
of  manufacturing  came  to  require  more  laborers ;  and  the  small 
farmers  and  country  workmen  gradually  adapted  themselves  to  the 
new  conditions.  Inclosures  went  somewhat  out  of  fashion  among 
the  farmers  themselves,  and  by  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
little  more  is  heard  of  this  particular  kind  of  trouble,  though  there 
were  some  later  revivals  of  it. 


318  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

283.  The  Debasement  of  the  Coinage.  —  There  were  troubles 
enough,  however,  of  other  kinds.    One  was  the  great  rise  of  prices, 
or  rather  their  irregularity.    One  cause  of  this  was  the  change 
going  on  in  farming  and  other  forms  of  industry.    Another  was 
the  change  taking  place  in  the  purity  of  the  money  of  the  country. 
All  through   the   middle   ages   there   had  been  about  the   same 
amount  of  alloy  mixed  with  the  pure  silver  or  gold  when  they 
were  coined,  and  the  coins  remained  of  nearly  the  same  weight. 
In  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  however,  the  king  decided  to  coin  a 
pound  of  silver  into  forty  shillings  instead  of  thirty-seven  and  a 
half,  as  before.     Somewhat  later  he  had  a  pound  coined  into  forty- 
five  shillings,  and  later  still  into  forty-eight.    The  new  shillings 
were  therefore  only  about  three  fourths  as  large  as  the  old.    At  the 
same  time  he  began  putting  more  and  more  alloy  in  with  the  pure 
silver  till  the  coined  metal  was  only  half  silver.    Under  Edward  VI 
the  coin  was  made  still  worse,  only  one  quarter  of  the  metal  being 
silver  and  the  remaining  three  quarters  alloy.    Thus  the  coins  were 
not  only  smaller  but  of  very  much  poorer  metal  than  of  old.    The 
same  was  done  with  the  gold  coins.    People,  however,  recognized 
the  new  and  poorer  money  and  charged  different  prices  for  their 
goods  according  to  the  kind  of  coins  that  were  offered  them. 
This  interfered  with  trade  and  was  particularly  hard  on  the  poorer 
classes,  who  could  not  insist  on  receiving  good  money  rather  than 
bad.     Finally  so  much  of  the  money  in  circulation  was  bad  that 
a  proclamation  was  issued  declaring  that  shillings  should  in  the 
future  be  considered  as  worth  only  sixpence,  but  debased  money 
continued  to  be  coined  for  some  years. 

284.  Close  of  the  Reign  of  Edward  VI.  — As  time  passed  on  it 
became  certain  that  the  young  king  was  destined   to  an  early 
death  from  consumption.     In   1553,  when  he  was  sixteen  years 
old,  he  was  so  ill  that  it  was  evident  his  death  might  occur  at  any 
time.     According  to  the  will  of  Henry  VIII,  Edward's  successor, 
since  he  had  no  children,  would  be  his  elder  sister  Mary.     Mary 
had  lived  much  in  retirement,  but  so  far  as  she  was  known  she 


THE   EARLY  TUDOR   PERIOD  319 

was  popular ;  and  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  England  had 
never  been  ruled  by  a  woman,  and  that  Mary  was  known  to  be  a 
Catholic,  most  people  believed  that  there  would  be  peace  and 
good  order  in  the  country  under  her  rule.  Under  the  government 
of  Edward's  council  Protestantism  had  been  forced  upon  the 
majority  of  the  people  in  such  an  extreme  form  and  by  such 
tyrannical  measures  that  to  many  it  had  become  more  distasteful 
than  the  old  Catholic  faith.  It  was  a  sad  time.  There  was  uni- 
versal suffering  among  the  poor,  disturbance  of  trade,  dislike  and 
distrust  of  the  king's  guardians,  and  the  great  body  of  the  people 
looked  forward  with  hope  and  satisfaction  to  the  reign  of  Mary. 

285.  The  Plot  for  the  Succession  of  Lady  Jane  Grey. — The 
duke  of  Northumberland,  however,  knew  that  his  power  and  per- 
haps his  life  would  be  lost  the  moment  Mary  came  to  the  throne, 
and  he  was  ready  to  adopt  desperate  measures  to  prevent  it.  So 
long  as  Edward  lived  the  duke  had  control  over  all  the  troops, 
forts,  navy,  treasury,  and  the  government  officials.  He  had  also 
obtained  unbounded  influence  over  the  young  king.  Strengthened 
by  these  opportunities  he  planned  a  bold  stroke  for  a  continuance 
of  his  power. 

The  young  king  had  a  cousin,  a  girl  of  about  his  own  age,  Lady 
Jane  Grey.  She  was  the  granddaughter  of  Mary,  the  younger 
sister  of  Henry  VIII.  She  had  been  brought  up  in  retirement 
under  the  care  of  her  mother  and  private  tutors.  She  had  the 
precocity  of  intellectual  development  and  the  thoroughness  of 
education  which  were  common  then  among  women  of  the  higher 
classes.  She  was  besides  a  sweet,  attractive  girl,  affectionate  to 
her  relatives  and  friends,  but  with  no  interest  in  or  knowledge 
of  the  politics  of  the  time.  It  was  she  whom  Northumberland 
had  chosen  as  a  rival  of  Mary.  He  arranged  a  marriage  between 
Jane  and  his  son,  and  then  induced  Edward  to  draw  up  a  paper 
setting  aside  his  father's  will  and  appointing  Lady  Jane  to  the 
throne.  Edward  had  no  constitutional  right  to  make  this  arrange- 
ment, as  his  father  had  been  especially  authorized  by  parliament 


320  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

to  arrange  the  succession,  and  had  only  exercised  the  power  by 
this  authority.  Nevertheless  the  king,  by  appealing  to  the  feelings 
and  self-interest  of  the  Protestant  nobles  and  the  bishops,  by  com- 
manding the  judges  on  the  ground  of  their  duty  to  him,  and  finally 
by  begging  with  tears  in  his  eyes  those  who  still  refused,  induced 
a  large  number  of  those  who  were  in  positions  of  authority  to  sign 
their  names  to  this  document  and  to  pledge  themselves  to  support 
the  accession  of  Jane  rather  than  of  Mary. 

The  wan  face  of  the  dying  king  might  secure  a  promise  from 
those  who  surrounded  his  deathbed,  but  it  could  not  overcome  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  succession  after  his  death.  The  lords 
of  the  council  hailed  Lady  Jane  as  queen,  and  even  her  father- 
in-law,  the  great  duke,  knelt  before  her.  She  was  proclaimed 
queen  in  London,  taken  to  the  Tower,  and  treated  with  royal 
honors  for  a  few  days,  while  Northumberland  carried  on  the  gov- 
ernment in  her  name. 

But  Mary  was  not  a  woman  to  yield  without  a  struggle.  She 
declared  herself  to  be  the  rightful  queen  as  soon  as  the  news  of 
her  brother's  death  reached  her.  The  nobles  gathered  around 
her,  the  troops  that  were  sent  by  the  duke  to  capture  her  refused 
obedience  to  his  orders,  and  within  a  few  days  Northumberland 
was  arrested  and  imprisoned,  and  Jane  remained  in  the  Tower  a 
prisoner  instead  of  a  queen. 

286.  Queen  Mary.  —  Mary  was  received  with  universal  rejoi- 
cings and  seemed  inclined  to  let  bygones  be  bygones,  to  be  merci- 
ful to  her  late  opponents,  and  to  rule  with  the  advice  of  the  more 
moderate  nobles.  The  duke  of  Northumberland  was  executed, 
but  the  other  leaders  of  the  plot  were  left  in  prison  unharmed  for 
the  time,  and  many  of  the  members  of  the  late  king's  council  still 
remained  in  office.  Nevertheless,  when  some  of  Mary's  actions 
and  plans  proved  to  be  unpopular,  another  plot  was  formed  among 
a  number  of  the  nobles  and  gentry,  and  a  fierce  revolt  broke  out 
under  the  leadership  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  a  Kentish  gentle- 
man. It  gained  its  principal  strength  among  the  people  of  that 


THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD 


321 


turbulent  county,  which  had  been  the  birthplace  of  so  many  earlier 
rebellions.  The  plan  of  the  conspirators  was  to  depose  Mary  and 
to  put  her  younger  sister  Elizabeth  on  the  throne.  This  revolt, 
however,  was  put  down  after  some  fighting  in  and  around  London, 
where  for  a  moment  it  had  seemed  on  the  point  of  success. 

The  queen  was  now  angry  and  bitter.  She  wished  all  who  had 
taken  part  in  either  of  the  efforts  to  exclude  her  from  the  throne 
to  be  put  to  death.  More  than  a  hundred  were  tried  and  exe- 
cuted for  complicity  in  the  last  rising.  Even  Lady  Jane  Grey, 
who  had  known  nothing  about  this  rebellion  and  who  would  not 
have  profited  by  its  success,  was  in- 
formed that  she  with  her  husband 
must  die  for  her  treason  in  occupying 
for  a  few  days  an  undesired  throne. 
Only  seventeen  years  of  age,  alone, 
inexperienced,  and  innocent,  Lady 
Jane  Grey  went  to  the  scaffold  with 
a  quiet  courage  and  dignity  and  a 
serene  persistence  in  her  Protestant 
faith  that  shamed  many  an  older  and 
guiltier  sufferer,  so  that  her  character 
stands  out  as  an  oasis  of  purity  and 
pathos  in  the  desert  of  violence,  betrayal,  and  hardness  of  that  time. 

287.  The  Catholic  Reaction. — The  causes  which  had  led  to 
Wyatt's  rebellion  were  principally  two,  —  Mary's  plan  to  reintro- 
duce  the  Catholic  religion  in  its  mediaeval  form  by  making  England 
again  subject  to  the  pope  in  church  affairs,  and  her  announced 
choice  of  her  cousin  Philip,  the  son  of  the  king  of  Spain,  for  a  hus- 
band. Immediately  on  her  accession  some  of  the  recently  intro- 
duced Protestant  practices  were  given  up  and  the  older  Catholic 
ceremonies  took  their  place.  The  most  extreme  and  active  of  the 
Protestant  reformers  either  went  voluntarily  into  exile  or  were 
shut  up  in  prison  on  various  charges.  The  old  Catholic  service 
in  Latin  was  reintroduced  here  and  there  with  little  opposition, 


Medal  with  Portrait  of  Queen 
Mary  (by  the  Italian  en- 
graver Primavera) 


322  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  soon  became  almost  universal.  The  Catholic  majority  in  each 
parish,  or  at  least  those  who  preferred  old  rather  than  new  ways, 
set  up  again  the  crucifixes  and  resumed  the  old  familiar  religious 
customs.  The  queen  and  her  advisers  took  even  more  decisive 
action  in  the  same  direction.  She  released  immediately  from  their 
confinement  the  bishops  who  had  opposed  the  Protestant  changes 
of  the  last  reign,  and  restored  them  to  their  honors  and  duties, 
expelling  those  who  had  been  put  in  their  sees.  Then  she  required 
all  the  clergy  who  had  married  either  to  put  away  their  wives  or  to 
give  up  their  offices  in  the  church.  When  parliament  met,  a  gen- 
eral repeal  act  was  passed  by  which  the  laws  on  religion  passed  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  were  abrogated,  and  matters  restored  to  much 
the  position  in  which  they  had  been  at  the  death  of  Henry  VIII. 

288.  The  Spanish  Marriage.  —  But  Queen  Mary  was  not  satis- 
fied with  this.     She  wished  to  have  the  connection  with  the  papacy 
restored  as  it  had  been  before  any  of  the  events  of  the  Reforma- 
tion had  taken  place.     Besides  this  she  had  made  up  her  mind, 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  who  was  her  most 
trusted  adviser,  to  marry  Philip.     Both  of  these  plans  were  unpop- 
ular in  England,  but  little  could  be  done  in  opposition  to  the 
will  of  the  queen.     Men  and  parties  were  in  mutual  antagonism, 
the  authority  of  the  sovereign  was  still  as  great  as  it  had  been 
in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII,  and  Mary's  inclinations  were  drawing 
her  nearer  and  nearer  to  both  the  marriage  with  Philip  and  the 
restoration  of  the  papal  power.     Then  came  the  rising  of  Wyatt 
and  his  friends,  and  when  it  was  put  down  not  only  toas  Mary 
more  determined  than  ever,  but  resistance  by  the  people  was  now 
hopeless.     She  at  last  had  her  way.     Philip  came  to  England,  the 
marriage  took  place,  and  for  a  few  weeks  or  months  Mary  fancied 
herself  happy.     But  Philip  had  no  love  for  his  bride,  in  fact  actu- 
ally disliked  her.     He  avoided  her  as  much  as  he  could  and  in 
about  a  year  left  England. 

289.  Loss  of  Calais. — The  principal  object  for  which  Philip 
had  sought  the  marriage  with  Mary  was  to  draw  England  into  the 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  323 

war  which  had  been  in  progress  for  some  time  between  Spain  and 
France.  After  long  hesitation  English  troops  were  at  last  sent  to 
the  continent  to  fight  on  the  Spanish  side.  They  won  little 
honor,  and  soon  afterwards  England,  as  a  result  of  being  at  war 
with  France,  suffered  what  was  then  felt  as  a  great  disaster.  In 
1558  Calais  was  suddenly  besieged  by  a  large  French  army  and 
fleet.  It  was  poorly  provided  with  men  and  supplies  and  the 
home  government  was  too  slow  in  sending  reinforcements.  As  a 
result  it  was  taken  by  storm,  notwithstanding  a  gallant  defense. 
All  the  English  inhabitants  were  driven  out,  leaving  their  property 
behind  them,  and  returned  to  England  with  nothing  but  their 
clothes.  Calais  became  again  a  French  city.  The  sorrow,  anger, 
and  humiliation  of  the  queen  and  of  the  whole  people  of  England 
were  extreme.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years  the  English 
flag  had  floated  over  Calais  and  English  merchants  and  citizens 
had  occupied  it.  It  was  an  outpost  of  English  defense,  the  proof 
of  England's  military  power,  the  badge  of  her  control  of  the 
Channel,  the  center  of  her  trade  with  the  continent,  the  gate  of 
entrance  through  which  her. warlike  expeditions  entered  France. 
Its  loss  seemed  to  set  the  stamp  of  humiliation  upon  England  and 
to  deprive  her  of  much  of  her  old  glory. 

From  a  practical  point  of  view  the  loss  of  Calais  was  probably  a 
real  gain  for  England.  Its  garrison  had  long  been  a  great  and 
unremunerative  expense,  trade  had  changed  so  much  that  Calais 
was  not  needed  to  obtain  an  entrance  to  the  continent,  and  it  was 
just  as  well  that  England  should  not  be  tempted  to  send  military 
expeditions  into  France.  Nevertheless  it  was  a  great  blow  to  the 
nation's  pride  and  a  bitter  disappointment  to  the  queen.  An  old 
story  says  that  on  her  deathbed  she  declared  that  if  her  body  were 
opened  two  names  would  be  found  written  on  her  heart ;  one  would 
be  "  Philip,"  the  other  "  Calais." 

290.  The  Restoration  of  Papal  Control.  —  In  her  resolution  to 
restore  the  old  church  in  England,  Mary  was  as  successful  as  in  the 
Spanish  marriage.  A  number  of  influential  churchmen  had  never 


324  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

agreed  to  any  part  of  the  Reformation,  many  persons  were  dis- 
gusted by  the  unworthy  actions  of  some  of  the  extreme  reformers, 
and  the  great  body  of  the  nation  was  either  tired  of  such  sudden 
changes,  or  entirely  indifferent  to  the  whole  matter.  Thus  the 
queen  and  a  few  enthusiastic  Catholic  leaders  were  able  to  induce 
parliament  to  agree  to  restore  the  old  powers  of  the  Roman 
church  in  England.  They  found  it  necessary  first,  however,  to 
promise  that  there  should  be  no  effort  made  to  get  back  the  mon- 
astery and  chantry  lands  from  their  present  owners.  All  those 
who  had  obtained  lands  formerly  devoted  to  religious  purposes 
were  confirmed  in  them  by  the  queen's  promise,  by  a  special  dis- 
pensation of  the  pope,  and  later  by  act  of  parliament.  Then 
Cardinal  Pole,  an  Englishman  who  had  been  exiled  on  account  of 
his  opposition  to  the  policy  of  Henry  VIII,  was  sent  as  special 
ambassador  from  the  pope.  The  two  houses  of  parliament,  for 
themselves  and  in  the  name  of  the  whole  people,  asked  to  be 
forgiven  for  their  disobedience  and  rebellion  against  the  pope  and 
promised  to  repeal  all  the  acts  which  they  had  passed  against  the 
papal  authority.  Then  the  king,  queen,  lords,  and  commons  bent 
on  their  knees  and  received  forgiveness  and  absolution  from  the 
legate  in  the  name  of  the  pope.  Parliament  after  this  passed  a 
great  act  repealing  some  sixteen  acts  of  former  parliaments,  being 
all  the  laws  antagonistic  to  the  church  passed  since  1529,  and 
restoring  the  ecclesiastical  system  almost  to  its  old  form. 

291.  The  Religious  Persecution.  —  It  was  one  thing  to  declare 
that  all  should  be  as  it  had  been  of  old,  it  was  quite  another  to 
induce  every  one  to  believe  as  had  been  believed  in  former  times. 
However  anxious  to  return  to  Roman  Catholicism,  or  however 
indifferent  to  religion  the  great  majority  of  the  nation  might  be, 
there  were  many  individuals  in  all  classes  of  society  who  had 
become  convinced  and  earnest  Protestants.  For  some  time  there 
was  little  interference  with  these,  though  Archbishop  Cranmer, 
Bishops  Latimer,  Ridley,  and  Hooper,  and  other  prominent  religious 
leaders  who  did  not  voluntarily  go  into  exile  remained  in  prison. 


THE   EARLY   TUDOR   PERIOD  325 

As  time  went  on,  however,  and  the  Catholic  reaction  became 
stronger,  Mary  first  allowed  and  then  encouraged  the  effort  to 
force  everybody  to  accept  the  old  faith  in  all  its  strictness  or  else 
be  punished  for  heresy. 

Parliament  reenacted  the  old  laws  for  the  burning  of  heretics 
under  which  the  Lollards  had  suffered  and  reestablished  the  church 
courts.  Soon  the  sad  work  began.  Many  prominent  Protestants 
who  had  long  lain  in  prison  were  tried  before  church  officials,  and, 
when  they  refused  to  give  up  their  opinions,  were  handed  over  to 
the  sheriffs  or  town  officials  to  be  burned  at  the  stake.  There  were 
very  few  cases  of  recantation.  Most  of  those  who  were  tried  per- 
sisted in  their  beliefs  and  the  law  was  then  carried  out.  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  a  man  of  delicate,  shrinking  physical  nature,  of 
hesitating  and  over-cautious  habits  of  mind,  broken  and  wearied 
by  long  imprisonment,  by  the  knowledge  of  the  suffering  of  many 
of  those  who  had  been  burnt,  and  by  the  unending  strife  of  opinions 
and  apparent  conflict  of  duties,  was  drawn  into  one  form  of  recan- 
tation after  another,  till  he  had  practically  denied  all  his  recent 
teachings  and  approved  the  whole  Roman  Catholic  system.  Never- 
theless, when  actually  in  sight  of  the  stake,  he  withdrew  these 
recantations,  declared  his  faith  in  Protestant  doctrines,  and  when 
he  was  burned  held  his  right  hand  in  the  flame  in  order  that  it 
should  be  burned  first  for  signing  his  name  to  a  falsehood. 

The  scenes  of  public  execution  of  heretics  by  fire  became  only 
too  common.  More  were  put  to  death  in  two  years  than  in  the 
preceding  century  and  a  half  during  which  the  heresy  laws  had 
been  in  existence.  Between  two  hundred  and  fifty  and  three 
hundred  altogether  were  thus  martyred,  while  hundreds  more  lay 
suffering  in  the  miserable  prisons  of  the  time.  Most  of  the  per- 
secution was  carried  on  in  two  or  three  dioceses  whose  bishops 
were  especially  determined  or  which  were  particularly  under  the 
influence  of  the  queen  and  those  of  her  advisers  who  favored 
this  attempt  to  force  the  people  into  conforming  to  the  official 
doctrines. 


326  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

292.  Mary's  Declining  Health  and  Happiness.  — The  queen  had 
no  child,  notwithstanding  her  passionate  eagerness  for  one,  and  the 
hope  of  Philip  and  of  the  English  people  for  an  heir  to  the  throne. 
She  soon  recognized  the  absence  of  love  for  her  on  her  husband's 
part,  though  her  own  for  him  seemed  to.  increase  rather  than  dimin- 
ish. It  was  the  same  with  her  popularity.  Like  her  father  and  her 
brother  and  sister  she  was  extremely  anxious  to  have  the  love  of 
her  people.  Yet  her  somber  nature,  her  policy,  and  the  occur- 
rences of  the  time  rapidly  deprived  her  of  the  popularity  she  had 
possessed  at  her  accession  to  the  throne.  More  than  once  letters 
and  placards  were  found  thrown  into  her  own  room  telling  her 
that  she  was  hated  by  the  people  and  ridiculing  her  devotion  to 
a  husband  who  despised  her.  As  the  queen  failed  in  health,  lost 
her  spirits,  and  became  more  unhappy  she  turned  with  still  greater 
urgency  to  the  work  of  rooting  out  heresy.  Partly  no  doubt  she 
felt  this  to  be  her  religious  duty,  hoping  with  superstitious  devo- 
tion that  a  more  vigorous  fulfillment  of  it  might  bring  to  her  that 
favor  of  heaven  of  which  she  seemed  so  far  to  have  enjoyed  so 
little.  Partly  it  was  no  doubt  a  relief  to  her  bitter  feelings  to  exer- 
cise severity  upon  the  heretics  who,  in  her  opinion  and  that  of  all 
the  men  in  whom  she  confided,  were  unworthy  to  live  upon  the 
earth  and  were  destined  to  everlasting  punishment. 

But  the  persecution  failed  of  its  intended  effect.  Crowds 
gathered  around  those  who  were  condemned  to  die,  and,  even 
when  they  did  not  agree  with  them  or  take  any  interest  in  their 
beliefs,  cheered  them  in  their  resolution,  pitied  their  sufferings, 
encouraged  them  with  shouts  and  prayers,  and  cried  out  against 
the  clergy  and  the  queen  who  were  responsible  for  putting  them 
to  death. 

Thus  Mary's  reign  drew  to  an  end.  There  were  several  con- 
spiracies and  plots  to  overthrow  the  government.  All  of  these 
were  discovered  in  time  or  else  failed  at  the  first  attempt.  Never- 
theless each  bore  its  fruit  of  executions  and  increased  the  confu- 
sion and  dissatisfaction  of  the  time.  Mary  died  in  1558,  and  all 


THE   EARLY  TUDOR   PERIOD  327 

England  again  looked  with  hope  to  the  beginning  of  a  new  and  better 
age  under  the  third  child  of  Henry  VIII,  Mary's  sister  Elizabeth. 

293.  Summary  of  the  Period  1485-1558.  —  The  greatest  char- 
acteristic of  this  period  was  the  enormous  power  of  the  ruler. 
England  was  practically  an  absolute  monarchy.  Although  most 
of  the  actions  of  the  government  were  carried  out  through  the 
regular  procedure  of  council,  courts,  parliament,  and  local  officers, 
yet  these  did  not  have  either  the  power  or  the  desire  to  resist  the 
will  of  the  king.  Although  the  king  had  no  standing  army  to 
enforce  his  wishes,  yet  the  habit  of  obedience  was  so  great  and 
the  organization  of  the  government  so  complete  that  forcible 
resistance  was  in  no  single  case  successful. 

The  greatest  result  of  this  despotic  position  of  the  king  was  the 
carrying  through  of  the  Reformation  as  a  scheme  of  royal  policy. 
Many  of  the  tendencies  of  the  time  favored  the  Reformation,  and 
in  some  of  its  phases  its  form  and  progress  were  very  different 
from  what  the  king  would  have  wished.  Nevertheless  in  the  main 
it  followed  the  personal  desires  of  the  king,  and  England  was 
Protestant,  Catholic,  or  merely  independent  of  the  pope  accord- 
ing as  Edward,  Mary,  or  Henry  was  on  the  throne.  It  was  only 
later  that  the  Reformation  became  an  affair  of  the  English  people, 
independent  of  their  rulers,  and  never  did  the  established  church 
cease  to  represent  the  wishes  of  the  crown. 

The  end  which  Henry  VII  put  to  the  disorders  and  turmoil 
of  the  barons,  and  the  heavy  hand  the  kings  always  kept  over  break- 
ers of  the  peace  and  other  ill  doers,  made  this  a  time  of  advancing 
wealth  and  prosperity  for  the  merchant  class  and  for  the  land- 
holders and  large  farmers  in  the  country.  The  inclosures,  the 
debasement  of  the  coinage,  and  the  severity  of  the  laws  made  it 
a  hard  period  for  the  lower  classes,  and  the  unwise  policy  of  the 
government  went  far  to  counteract  the  advantages  of  peace  and 
order. 

This  was  also  the  period  of  the  "  new  learning,"  which  was  des- 
tined to  lead  on  to  a  new  literature  only  a  generation  later ;  and 


328  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

printing,  good  portraiture,  much  building,  improved  schools,  more 
widely  spread  education,  and  interest  in  discoveries  all  indicate 
that  it  was  an  active  intellectual  period.  It  was  an  age  of  much 
breaking  with  the  past,  and  the  times  of  Queen  Elizabeth  which 
were  to  follow  were  much  more  like  modern  times  than  they  were 
like  the  middle  ages. 


General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  iv,  sects.  3-6,  chap,  vi, 
sects,  i  and  2.  GAIRDNER,  Henry  VII.  BUSCH,  England  -under  the  Tudors. 
Vol.  I  has  the  subtitle  King  Henry  VII.  SEEBOHM,  The  Oxford  Reformers. 
WAKEMAN,  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  chaps,  xi-xiv.  MOBERLY, 
The  Early  Tudors  (Epochs  of  History).  CREIGHTON,  Wolsey.  POLLARD, 
England  under  Protector  Somerset.  The  longest  work  on  this  period  is 
FROUDE,  History  of  England,  Vols.  I-VI.  It  is  a  book  of  much  learning, 
sagacity,  and  charm  of  style,  but  it  is  so  prejudiced  that  it  cannot  be  con- 
sidered a  trustworthy  account.  GASQUET,  Henry  VIII  and  the  English 
Monasteries,  corrects  Froude  on  many  points.  EINSTEIN,  The  Italian 
Renaissance  in  England,  is  a  valuable  work  including  much  new  matter. 
A  good  short  account  of  the  German  Reformation,  which  exercised  so 
much  influence  on  that  of  England,  can  be  found  in  ROBINSON,  History 
of  Western  Europe,  chaps,  xxv  and  xxvi ;  and  another  account  in  SEEBOHM, 
Era  of  the  Protestant  Revolution  (Epochs  of  History).  The  inclosures  are 
quite  fully  described  in  CHEYNEY,  Social  Changes  in  England  in  the  Six- 
teenth Century,  Part  I  (Rural  Changes),  and  in  ASHLEY,  English  Economic 
History,  Vol.  II,  chap.  iv. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  CAVENDISH,  Cardinal  Wolsey.  Cavendish  was 
one  of  Wolsey's  clerks  and  wrote  of  what  he  had  himself  seen  and  heard. 
ROPER,  Sir  Thomas  More.  Roper  was  More's  son-in-law.  MORE,  Utopia. 
Translations  and  Reprints,  Vol.  I,  No.  I,  The  Early  Reformation  Period. 
The  Reformation  statutes  are  given  in  ADAMS  and  STEPHENS,  Select  Docu- 
ments of  English  Constitutional  History,  Nos.  150,  153,  159,  etc.  Many 
other  documents  concerning  the  Reformation  are  in  LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos. 
104-132.  Those  in  COLBY,  Selections  from  the  Sources,  Nos.  50-60,  are 
particularly  interesting  and  varied;  and  there  are  several  in  KENDALL, 
Source-Book,  Nos.  44-50. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  SHAKESPEARE,  Henry  VIII,  stands  out  as  the 
best  known  poetic  representation  of  this  period.  TENNYSON'S  fine  drama, 
Queen  Mary,  gives  a  pathetic  picture  of  her  character.  Miss  YONGE,  The 
Armourer's  Prentices,  is  a  story  of  the  time  of  Henry  VIII,  and  AINSWORTH, 


THE  EARLY  TUDOR  PERIOD         329 

The  Tower  of  London,  of  the  time  of  Queen  Mary.  MARK  TWAIN,  The 
Prince  and  the  Pauper,  refers  to  the  period  of  Edward  VI.  The  battle  of 
Flodden  of  1513  has  left  many  poetic  memorials,  the  best  of  which  are 
SCOTT,  Marmion,  AYTOUN,  Edinburgh  after  Flodden,  and  Miss  ELLIOTT, 
The  Flowers  of  the  Forest, 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  The  Fall  of  Wolsey,  CAVENDISH,  Life  of  Wolsey 
(Morley's  Universal  Library),  pp.  137-263;  (2)  How  More  came  to  write 
the  Utopia,  Utopia,  Book  I;  (3)  Inclosures,  CHEYNEY,  Social  and  Indus- 
trial History,  pp.  141-147;  (4)  Changes  in  the  Gilds,  ibid.,  pp.  147-161; 
(5)  Death  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  FROUDE,  History  of  England,  Vol.  VI,  chap, 
xxxi;  (6)  Trial  and  Execution  of  Latimer,  Ridley,  and  Cranmer,  /£/</.,  chap. 
xxxvi;  (7)  Latimer's  Sermons,  English  Prose  (Camelot  series),  pp.  10-15; 
(8)  The  Merchants  Adventurers,  LINGELBACH,  The  Merchants  Adventurers, 
Translations  and  Reprints,  Second  Series,  Vol.  II,  pp.  i-xxxix ;  (9)  The 
New  Learning  in  England,  GREEN,  Short  History  of  the  English  People, 
chap,  vi,  sect,  iv ;  (10)  The  Renaissance  in  Italy,  ROBINSON,  History  of 
Western  Europe,  pp.  321-353;  (11)  Early  Voyages  of  Discovery,  TRAILL, 
Social  England,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  209-228;  (12)  Ireland  in  the  Early  Sixteenth 
Century,  ibid.,  pp.  293-302. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
THE   REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH.     1558-1603 

294.  The  New  Queen.  —  There  has  been  no  greater  period  in 
English  history  than  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  To  this  greatness 
many  things  contributed,  —  the  vigor  of  the  new  nobility,  the 
enterprise  of  the  middle  classes,  the  strength  of  national  feeling, 
the  activity  of  mind  due  to  the  "new  learning"  and  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  the  character  of  the  queen.  When  Queen  Mary  died 
Elizabeth  was  a  young  woman  of  twenty-five,  animated,  intelligent, 
and  vigorous.  She  had  received  the  solid  education  then  in 
fashion  for  young  women  of  high  birth.  She  could  read,  write, 
and  speak  Latin,  French,  and  Italian,  as  well  as  remarkably  vig- 
orous English.  She  had  studied  some  Greek  and  had  much  gen- 
eral information.  She  possessed  also  a  sense  of  humor  and  a 
capacity  for  bluff,  good-natured  repartee  inherited  from  her  father, 
while  her  prudence  of  speech  and  caution  of  action  proclaimed 
her  the  granddaughter  of  Henry  VII.  A  girlhood  passed  during 
the  reigns  of  Edward  and  Mary,  when  she  was  more  than  once  in 
imminent  danger  of  suffering  the  fate  of  her  cousin,  Lady  Jane 
Grey,  had  made  her  self-reliant  and  wary. 

Notwithstanding  these  intellectual  gifts  Elizabeth  was  not  a 
lovable  woman.  She  was  selfish  and  egotistical.  Nor  was  she 
capable  of  inspiring  any  very  deep  personal  respect.  She  was 
often  faithless  to  her  friends  and  vacillating  in  her  likes  and  dis- 
likes. Sincerity  and  a  delicate  sense  of  honor  were  absent  from 
her  character.  But  few  of  the  great  number  of  men  and  women 
who  surrounded  her  through  life  really  loved  her,  or  respected  her 
for  any  of  her  more  personal  or  womanly  qualities.  Nevertheless 

33° 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH 


331 


she  was  thoroughly  English.  Her  very  faults  were  those  of  her 
people  and  her  time.  Back  of  her  affectation  and  petty  coquetry 
she  was  large-minded  and  lofty  in  spirit.  She  was  willing  to  allow 
differences  of  opinion  and  able  to  understand  the  feelings  of  dif- 
ferent men.  Above  all,  Elizabeth  was  devoted  to  England.  She 
was  determined  to  rule  for  the  whole  English  people,  not  for  any 
party  at  home  or  in  subser- 
vience to  any  power  abroad. 

Elizabeth  was  proclaimed 
queen  in  1558,  and  chose 
as  her  secretary  of  state  and 
most  trusted  adviser  Sir  Wil- 
liam Cecil,  whom  she  after- 
wards made  Lord  Burleigh.  ^ 
Though  she  often  refused  to 
take  his  advice,  and  even  at 
times  sent  him  into  retire- 
ment, Burleigh  was  always 
restored  to  influence  again 
and  remained  her  principal 
counselor  until  his  death  in 
1598.  Somewhat  later  than  Cecil,  Sir  Francis  Walsingham  came 
into  her  service  and  became  almost  equally  influential.  Upon  her 
accession  the  queen  set  herself,  with  the  help  of  these  ministers, 
the  task  of  establishing  the  new  reign  on  firm  foundations. 

295.  The  Religious  Settlement. — The  most  critical  question 
was  that  of  religion.  Foreign  rulers  and  their  ministers,  the 
English  bishops  and  office  holders,  the  leaders  of  Catholics  and 
Protestants,  all  were  in  suspense  awaiting  the  action  of  the  queen. 
Her  decision  was  shown  at  her  first  parliament,  which  met  two 
months  after  her  accession. 

In  1558  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  were  still  indifferent 
in  religious  matters,  and  the  power  of  the  crown  was  very  great. 
It  was  quite  possible,  therefore,  for  the  ruler  to  control  the  form 


Portrait  of  Elizabeth 


332  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

which  the  religious  organization  of  the  people  should  take.  Eliza- 
beth chose  her  own  ministers,  and  with  them  exerted  so  much 
influence  over  parliament  that  almost  any  laws  which  she  wanted 
could  be  carried  through.  Her  birth  from  a  marriage  forbidden 
by  the  pope  and  her  desire  for  freedom  from  outside  control  pre- 
vented her  from  continuing  the  Roman  Catholic  policy  of  Mary. 
She  and  her  ministers  therefore  settled  upon  a  middle  course, 
going  back  in  all  matters  of  church  government  to  the  system 
of  Henry  VIII,  and  in  matters  of  doctrine  and  ceremonial  to 
that  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  To  carry  out  this  arrange- 
ment two  important  laws,  known  as  the  "Act  of  Supremacy" 
and  the  "Act  of  Uniformity,"  were  passed  by  parliament.  By 
these  acts  all  laws  against  the  pope  which  had  been  repealed 
in  Mary's  reign  were  reenacted,  and  it  was  declared  that  "no 
foreign  prince,  person,  prelate,  state  or  potentate,  spiritual  or 
temporal,  shall  at  any  time  after  the  last  day  of  this  session  of 
parliament,  use,  enjoy  or  exercise  any 'manner  of  power,  jurisdic 
tion,  superiority,  authority,  preeminence  or  privilege,  spiritual  or 
ecclesiastical,  within  this  realm."  Although  the  old  title  "  Head 
of  the  Church"  was  not  revived,  the  regulation  of  the  English 
church  in  matters  of  doctrine  and  good  order  was  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  queen,  and  she  was  authorized  to  appoint  a  minister 
or  ministers  to  exercise  these  powers  in  her  name.  The  mass 
was  abolished  and  in  its  place  the  second  book  of  common  prayer, 
which  had  been  issued  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  with  some  slight 
modifications,  was  reintroduced.  The  ornaments  of  the  churches 
and  the  forms  and  ceremonies  used  in  the  church  services  were 
ordered  to  be  the  same  as  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  Notwith- 
standing the  protests  of  the  clergy,  the  law  proceeded  to  declare 
that  all  clergymen  and  officers  of  the  crown  should  take  an  oath 
of  obedience  to  the  law  as  it  now  stood  before  entering  upon  any 
office.  Some  time  afterwards  the  doctrines  of  the  church  were 
promulgated  in  the  form  of  the  "Thirty-Nine  Articles,"  which 
have  since  remained  the  standard  of  doctrine  of  the  church. 


THE   REIGN   OF  ELIZABETH  333 

296.  The  Middle  Position  of  the  English  Church. — Thus  the 
church  of  England  was  established  in  a  form  midway  between  the 
church  of  Rome  and  the  Protestant  churches  on  the  continent  of 
Europe.  It  was  not  Roman  Catholic,  as  it  had  been  during  the 
middle  ages,  for  it  had  rejected  the  headship  of  the  pope  and 
had  introduced  many  differences  in  doctrines  and  ceremonies. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  was  not  Protestant  like  other  reformed 
churches,  for  it  retained  the  organization  under  archbishops  and 
bishops,  it  had  a  prescribed  form  of  worship,  the  clergymen  still 
wore  robes  at  the  services;  and  in  fact  the  changes  from  the 
mediaeval  customs  and  beliefs  were  relatively  slight.1 

From  this  time  onward  the  organization  of  the  English  church 
was  strictly  national,  possessing  no  connection  with  any  authority 
outside  of  England  and  modeling  itself  on  no  other  church.  It 
was  designed  to  include  every  one  in  England.  The  form  of 
religious  service  was  established  .by  law,  and  this  service,  and  this 
alone,  was  to  be  used  by  every  clergyman  and  in  every  church  in 
England.  It  was  to  be  as  binding  on  the  people  as  on  the  clergy. 
All  persons  must  attend  church  every  Sunday  and  holy  day,  under 
penalty  of  a  fine  of  a  shilling  for  every  absence.  To  see  that  the 
ecclesiastical  laws  were  carried  out  and  to  enforce  the  control  over 
church  matters  granted  to  the  sovereign  by  the  Act  of  Supremacy, 

1  This  middle  position  of  the  reformed  church  of  England  is  the  cause 
of  much  difficulty  in  the  common  words  by  which  it  is  described.  Those 
who  are  much  attached  to  the  church  and  its  ideals  object  strongly  to 
speaking  of  it  as  a  Protestant  church.  They  declare  that  it  is  historically 
the  same  church  of  England  coming  down  from  the  time  of  the  apostles, 
having  simply  undergone  a  process  of  purification,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
in  the  form  of  the  Reformation.  They  object  also  to  the  use  of  the  word 
Catholic  to  describe  the  Roman  Catholit  church  in  this  connection,  claiming 
that  the  church  of  England  is  also  Catholic  in  the  sense  of  being  a  part  of  the 
universal  church.  The  adjective  Protestant  has,  however,  been  customarily 
applied  to  the  reformed  church  of  England  for  centuries,  and  in  common 
usage  Catholic  means  Roman  Catholic.  As  a  matter  of  common  usage, 
therefore,  rather  than  strict  accuracy,  these  familiar  terms  will  be  used  in 
this  book. 


334  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Elizabeth  from  time  to  time  appointed  commissioners  who  came 
finally  to  form  the  permanent  Court  of  High  Commission. 

297.  The  Catholics  and  the  Puritans.  —  This  position  of  com- 
promise in  church  matters  which  Elizabeth  and  her  advisers  had 
determined  upon,  although  apparently  satisfactory  enough  to  the 
majority  of  the  nation,  caused  deep  dissatisfaction  to  those  who 
were  at  the  two  extremes  in  religious  matters.  On  the  one  hand, 
earnest  Roman  Catholics  did  not  approve  of  the  abolition  of  the 
power  of  the  pope  in  England,  or  of  the  other  changes  from  the 
old  ways.  They  wished  the  continuance  of  Mary's  settlement  of 
the  church.  The  Catholics  were  numerous  among  the  nobility 
and  gentry,  especially  in  the  north  of  England  and  in  the  rural 
districts.  Many  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  held  office 
as  sheriffs,  lord  lieutenants,  and  justices  of  the  peace  were  firm 
Catholics,  opposed  to  change,  and  reluctant  to  take  the  oaths 
required  of  them  by  the  new  law. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  were  many  who  were  dissatisfied  with 
the  retention  of  so  much  from  the  mediaeval  church  and  were 
anxious  to  have  the  Reformation  carried  much  farther  than  it  had 
been.  These  became  known  as  "  Puritans,"  since  they  constantly 
expressed  a  desire  for  a  "  purer  "  form  of  worship  than  that  of  the 
established  church.  The  Puritans  were  numerous  among  the  mid- 
dle classes  and  in  the  towns.  Many  of  them  were  clergymen, 
and  numbers  of  these  had  been  in  exile  during  the  reign  of  Mary. 
On  the  continent  they  had  come  under  the  influence  of  the 
reformers  of  Switzerland,  Germany,  the  Netherlands,  and  France, 
and  had  learned  from  them  far  more  radical  religious  views  than 
had  ever  been  held  in  England. 

The  government  took  its  position  firmly  between  these  two 
extremes.  Several  bishops  had  recently  died,  but  the  remaining 
fourteen  were  summoned  before  the  queen  and  told  that  they 
must  submit  to  the  requirements  of  the  Act  of  Supremacy.  All 
but  one  of  them  declined  to  take  the  oath  which  denied  the  eccle- 
siastical power  of  the  pope  and  required  submission  in  religious 


THE   REIGN   OF  ELIZABETH 


335 


affairs  to  the  control  of  the  queen  and  her  ministers.  They  were 
therefore  deprived  of  their  orifices  and  new  bishops  and  archbishops 
appointed  or  elected  to  their  places.  The  pressure  put  upon  the 
lower  clergy  to  conform  to  the  change  was  more  gradual  and 
more  successful.  Of  a  total  of  more  than  nine  thousand  parish 
priests  and  other  clergymen,  less  than  two  hundred  stood  out  in 
their  refusal  to  take  the  oaths. 
These  were  removed  from  their 
posts.  Those  who  had  conformed 
gave  up  the  Catholic  mass  gradu- 
ally, though  in  many  cases  reluc- 
tantly, and  reestablished  the  use 
of  the  reformed  English  service  in 
their  churches.  The  government 
showed  considerable  leniency  in  the 
application  of  the  law,  especially 
during  the  early  years  of  Elizabeth's 
reign.  So  long  as  men  would  con- 
form outwardly  there  was  no  such 
effort  to  inquire  into  private  reli- 
gious beliefs  or  to  force  people  into 
conforming  as  there  had  been  under  Mary.  The  old  heresy  laws 
of  Lollard  times,  which  had  been  reenac'ted  under  Mary,  were  now 
repealed  again  and  forever. 

298.  The  Political  Settlement. — When  Elizabeth  came  to  the 
throne  England  was  in  close  alliance  with  Spain  and  at  war  with 
France.  Peace  was  soon  made  with  France.  At  the  same  time 
the  queen  and  the  ministers  made  every  effort  to  retain  the  alliance 
with  Spain.  It  was  to  the  highest  interest  of  England  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  both  the  great  continental  powers,  as  the  country 
was  not  prepared  to  go  to  war.  Her  little  navy  was  in  bad 
condition,  her  troops  few  and  poorly  equipped,  her  fortifications 
out  of  repair,  and  her  treasury  empty.  It  was  desirable,  more- 
over, to  remain  at  peace  with  Spain  because  Spain  governed  the 


Lord  Burleigh 


336  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Netherlands,  whither  England  sent  most  of  the  manufactured 
goods  which  she  exported.  It  was  desirable  also  to  avoid  war 
with  France,  because  France  and  Scotland  were  allies,  and  a  war 
across  the  Channel  was  almost  sure  to  mean  an  invasion  of  England 
from  the  Scottish  border. 

Yet  this  policy  of  peace  and  neutrality  was  a  difficult  one. 
France  and  Spain  were  almost  continually  at  war,  and  England 
was  in  constant  danger  of  being  drawn  into  the  contest.  If  she 
failed  to  strengthen  herself  by  a  warlike  alliance  with  one  of  them 
she  was  apt  to  be  attacked  by  the  other.  Each  of  them  had  rea- 
sons for  interfering  in  English  affairs.  The  Spanish  government  was 
dissatisfied  with  the  loss  of  the  influence  which  it  had  enjoyed 
during  Mary's  reign  and  was  displeased  with  the  religious  settle- 
ment. Spain  looked  upon  herself  as  the  special  champion  of  the 
English  Catholics.  The  French  were  the  guardians  of  the  claim 
to  the  English  throne  of  a  rival  of  Elizabeth  and  might  readily 
plan  an  invasion  for  the  dethronement  of  the  queen. 

Yet  Elizabeth  and  her  ministers  felt  that  the  advantages  of  peace 
to  the  country  were  so  great  that  war  must  be  avoided  by  every 
possible  effort.  In  this,  by  difficult  and  tortuous  means,  they 
were  successful.  In  the  political  as  in  the  religious  settlement 
the  government  pursued  its  policy  of  national  independence  and 
isolation.  English  interests  were  looked  after  at  home  and  abroad 
without  making  any  sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  other  nations,  and 
without  hesitating  at  the  adoption  of  unscrupulous  means.  Above 
all  it  was  the  policy  of  Elizabeth  to  avoid  being  drawn  into  foreign 
war  and  to  preserve  her  own  shores  free  from  invasion. 

299.  The  Social  Settlement. — The  changes,  rebellions,  and 
disorders  of  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII,  Edward  VI,  and  Mary  had 
left  a  legacy  of  much  distress  and  confusion  among  the  people. 
Inclosures  of  common  land  and  open  fields,  and  evictions  of  yeo- 
men from  their  little  farms,  were  still  going  on ;  many  men  were 
out  of  work  ;  prices  were  high  and  wages  were  low.  The  currency 
of  the  country  was  debased,  trade  was  irregular,  and  there  were 


THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH  337 


great  numbers  of  paupers  unable  to  support  themselves.  These 
matters  needed  settlement  as  much  as  religion  and  politics.  Some 
of  them  proved  to  be  incurable  except  by  the  slow  process  of  time. 
The  laws  against  inclosures,  for  instance,  were  reenacted,  but  had 
no  more  success  than  before.  Pauperism,  as  will  be  shown, 
remained  a  problem  but  partially  solved. 

300.  Restoration  of  the  Coinage.  —  In  one  field,  however,  there 
was    greater   success.     The   government  set  itself  vigorously  to 
the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  money,  the  debasement 
of  which  under  Henry  VIII  and  Edward  VI  has  already  been 
described.1    After  careful  preparation  a  proclamation  was  issued  by 
the  government,  in  1560,  stating  that  collectors  had  been  appointed 
in  each  market  town  who  would  give  money  of  standard  fineness 2 
in  exchange  for  current  coins.     Every  one  who  brought  his  money 
to  this  officer  would  receive  the  value  of  the  pure  silver  or  gold  in 
the  coins  he  had  brought.     He  would  therefore  receive  a  smaller 
number  of  pieces  but  they  would  be  of  standard  silver.    To  induce 
people  to  bring  their  money  a  small  bounty  was  promised,  and  it 
was  ordered  also  that  after  a  certain  time  the  old  money  should  not 
pass  current  at  all.     A  large  force  of  refiners  and  coiners  were  set 
to  work  at  the  mint  to  recoin  the  bad  pieces  as  they  were  brought 
in  into  money  of  the  standard  purity.    This  was  used  to  buy  more 
of  the  old  pieces  as  they  were  presented.     In  about  nine  months 
practically  all  the  old  coin  had  been  brought  in  to  the  government 
in  this  way  and  recoined,  and  since  that  time  there  has  been  no 
change  in  the  weight  or  purity  of  the  English  coinage.    This  was 
one  of  the  most  beneficial  actions  of  the  long  reign  of  Elizabeth. 

301.  The  Statute  of  Apprentices.  —  The  rates  of  wages  provided 
for  in  the  Statutes  of  Laborers 3  could  no  longer  be  enforced  ;  the 
regulations  of  the  old  craft  gilds  were  no  longer  carried  out,  and  in 
many  other  ways  time  had  changed  the  relations  between  employers 

1  See  p.  318. 

2  Standard  fineness  for  the  English  silver  coinage  is  98  parts  pure  silver 
to  2  parts  alloy.  8  See  p.  244. 


338  A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

and  employed.  The  government,  however,  had  no  idea  of  leaving 
wages  unregulated  or  masters  and  men  free  to  settle  such  matters 
between  them,  as  it  was  at  this  time  extending  its  regulations  to 
new  fields,  not  withdrawing  from  old  ones.  In  1563  was  passed 
a  long  act  for  the  regulation  of  labor,  known  as  the  "  Statute  of 
Apprentices."  It  required  that  in  most  trades  engagements  should 
be  by  the  year,  no  employer  being  allowed  to  discharge  his  work- 
man, nor  any  workman  being  allowed  to  leave  his  employer,  except 
at  the  end  of  a  year  of  service  and  after  a  quarter  of  a  year's 
warning.  Every  craftsman  must  go  through  an  apprenticeship  of 
seven  years.  No  workman  should  travel  from  his  home  without  a 
certificate  from  the  authorities.  All  laborers  were  required  to 
work  in  the  summer  from  five  in  the  morning  to  seven  or  eight  in 
the  evening,  in  the  winter  from  dawn  to  dark.  This  was  about 
equal  to  a  twelve-hour  day  of  labor.  Wages  were  to  be  settled 
each  year  by  the  justices  of  the  peace  in  each  county,  and  no 
employer  must  give  and  no  workman  ask  for  more  than  the  estab- 
lished rate  of  wages.  This  law  remained  in  force  for  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years. 

302.  Pauperism. —  Much  difficulty  with  the  poor  was  experi- 
enced at  this  time.  During  the  middle  ages  there  had  been,  of 
course,  many  who  were  unfortunate  and  miserably  poor ;  but  the 
changes  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  had  made  the 
number  far  greater.  Evictions,  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries 
and  the  inclosure  of  their  lands,  the  abolition  of  the  chantries,  the 
weakening  of  the  gilds,  the  more  active  competition  in  all  lines, 
and  the  introduction  of  new  methods  of  working,  threw  many  out 
of  work  and  produced  a  vast  army  of  paupers.  Those  who  had 
no  employment,  or  who  could  not  or  would  not  work,  traveled  up 
and  down  the  country,  gathering  in  great  numbers  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  larger  towns  and  indulging  in  aU  forms  of  lawlessness. 
Many  laws  had  been  passed  in  the  last  half  century  to  punish 
vagabonds  and  to  restrict  to  their  home  counties  those  who  could 
not  find  work,  but  none  had  been  effective. 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  339 

In  the  same  year  as  the  Statute  of  Apprentices,  1563,  a  law 
was  passed  "  to  the  intent  that  idle  and  loitering  persons  and  val- 
iant beggars  may  be  avoided,  and  the  impotent,  feeble  and  lame, 
which  are  the  poor  in  very  deed,  should  be  hereafter  relieved  and 
well  provided  for."  According  to  this  law  collectors  were  to  be 
appointed  in  each  parish  whose  duty  it  was  to  make  a  list  of  all 
paupers,  another  list  of  all  who  were  able  to  give  help,  to  secure 
from  the  latter  a  promise  to  pay  a  certain  amount  each  week  for 
the  support  of  the  poor,  and  to  collect  this  sum  weekly  and  pay  it 
over  to  those  whom  they  had  put  upon  the  list  as  paupers.  If  any 
one  who  had  means  could  not  be  persuaded  to  make  a  contribu- 
tion, he  was  to  be  forced  to  pay  a  tax  assessed  upon  his  property 
by  the  authorities.  Since  by  this  means  all  the  poor  would  be 
looked  after,  they  were  forbidden  by  law  to  beg  publicly  in  future ; 
and,  as  all  those  who  could  not  work  would  in  this  way  be  provided 
for  by  their  neighbors,  all  persons  wandering  through  the  country 
could  be  recognized  and  punished. 

It  was  thus  that  in  the  earlier  years  of  her  reign  the  queen,  with 

tthe  aid  of  her  council  and  her  parliament,  sought  to  bring  order  and 
tranquillity  to  the  country  in  these  different  spheres  of  national  life. 
303.  Elizabeth's  Court.  —  Settlement  and  tranquillity  are,  how- 
ever, the  last  terms  to  apply  to  the  court  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  It 
was  a  busy  scene  of  festivities,  negotiations,  and  plots.  Foreign 
ministers  came  and  went,  seeking  interviews  with  the  queen  or 
with  Cecil ;  meetings  of  the  council  were  held  to  discuss  matters  of 
foreign  or  internal  interest  as  they  arose  ;  intrigues  were  discovered 
and  those  who  had  taken  part  in  them  were  banished  from  the 
court,  while  new  courtiers  arose  into  influence  ;  sudden  threats  of 
war  gave  occasion  for  preparing  ships  or  calling  out  the  militia; 
projects  of  foreign  exploration  or  the  extension  of  trade  were  con- 
sidered, and  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  queen  were  met  in  all 
kinds  of  irregular  ways.  Affairs  of  state  and  personal  affairs,  great 
matters  and  small,  were  mingled  inextricably.  Everything  seems 
marked  by  change,  chance,  and  caprice.  It  is  only  by  looking 


340 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


carefully  below  the  surface  that  the  more  permanent  questions  of 
the  time  can  be  distinguished. 

304.  Mary  Stuart.  —  Chief  among  these  and  among  the  per- 
sonal difficulties  of  Elizabeth  was  the  rivalry  of  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots.  Mary  was  the  granddaughter  of  Margaret,  the  sister  of 
Henry  VIII,  who  married  the  king  of  Scotland.  She  was  there- 
fore Elizabeth's  cousin  and  the  next  heir  to  the  throne.  Indeed, 
if  the  marriage  of  Elizabeth's  mother  to  Henry  had  been  illegal, 
as  all  Roman  Catholics  claimed,  Mary  had  a  better  right  to  the 
throne  of  England  than  Elizabeth.1 

Although  Mary  was  the  daughter  of  the 
king  of  Scotland,  born  in  that  country, 
and  nominally  its  queen  from  her  infancy, 
she  had  been  brought  up  in  France,  had 
married  the  heir  to  the  French  throne, 
and  just  after  Elizabeth's  accession  had 
become,  through  her  husband,  queen  of 
France.  She  threw  down  the  gauntlet 
to  Elizabeth  by  using  the  title  "Queen 
of  England,  Scotland,  and  France." 
Although  she  made  no  effort  at  this  time 
to  make  good  her  claim  to  the  throne  of  England,  a  rivalry  with 
Elizabeth  thus  began  which  was  to  last  through  their  lives.  Mary 
was  eight  years  younger  than  Elizabeth,  well  educated,  attractive, 
intelligent,  and  quite  the  equal  of  Elizabeth  in  shrewdness,  though 


Mary  Queen  of  Scots  (a 
medal  by  the  Italian 
engraver  Primavera) 


1  The  relationship  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth  is  shown  by  the  following 
table. 

Henry  VII,  1485-1509 


Henry  VIII,  1509-1547 


iret 


Edward  VI          Mz 

,ry                Elizabeth                 James  V  of  Scotland 

J547-i553      I553~I558          1558-1603 
Mary 

Queen  of  Scots 

born 

1542,  died  1587 

THE    REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH 


341 


her  inferior  in  self-control.  Her  long  residence  at  the  French 
court  had  given  her  all  the  love  of  scheming  for  which  that  court 
was  famous.  She  knew  how  to  seem  artless  and  confiding  even 
when  she  was  really  working  out  some  deep-laid  plan.  She  habit- 
ually used  her  charm  as  a  woman  to  further  political  intrigues, 
and  in  her  private  life  and  amusements  was  frequently  plotting  to 
carry  out  political  objects  which  she  wanted  to  reach  perhaps  far 
in  the  future.-  The  greatest  difference  between  her  and  Elizabeth 


The  Palace  of  Holyrood,  near  Edinburgh 

was  that  the  latter  in  her  personal  plans  and  feelings  always  retained 
her  sense  of  responsibility  and  love  for  her  own  people  and  for 
England,  and  made  her  final  decision  according  to  their  interests, 
while  Mary  sought  more  purely  private  ends  and  ambitions. 

Her  husband  was  king  of  France  only  a  year  and  a  half.  When 
he  died,  Mary,  finding  herself  ill  at  ease  in  France  and  urged  to 
come  home  by  her  subjects,  determined  to  return  to  her  Scottish 
dominions.  She  asked  Elizabeth's  permission  to  pass  through 
England,  but  as  she  was  unwilling  to  agree  to  a  treaty  definitely 
giving  up  her  claim  to  the  English  throne,  permission  was  refused. 


342  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

She  then  sailed  directly  for  Scotland  and  in  1561  landed  in  her 
own  kingdom  and  took  up  her  residence  in  the  ancient  palace  of 
Holyrood  in  Edinburgh. 

305.  The   Reformation   in   Scotland.  —  Mary   found    Scotland 
already  far  more  radically  Protestant  than  England.     In  Scotland 
the  Reformation  had  been  a  movement  carried  out  by  the  people 
in  opposition  to  the  government,  instead  of  being  a  government 
measure  but  partially  assented  to  by  the  people,  as- in  England. 
Its  leaders  were  a  group  of  preachers,  the  most  famous  of  whom 
was  John  Knox,  a  man  of  unrestrained  religious  zeal,  but  pure  in 
life,  masterful  in  character,  fearless,  and  unswervingly  devoted  to 
Protestantism.    His  experiences  were  wide  and  varied,  from  slavery 
in  the  French  galleys  to  a  position  of  power  in  Scotland  which 
enabled  him  by  his  eloquence  to  bring  even  Mary  Stuart  to  tears 
for  her  later  crimes. 

Mary's  position  in  Scotland  was  a  difficult  one.  She  was  a 
Roman  Catholic  queen  in  the  midst  of  a  population  in  the  main 
strongly  Protestant.  The  wealth,  luxury,  and  brilliancy  of  the 
French  court  to  which  she  had  been  accustomed  found  a  harsh 
contrast  in  the  poverty  and  rudeness  of  the  Scottish  nobility  who 
surrounded  her  at  Holyrood.  Gifted,  well  educated,  and  used  to 
French  polish  and  courtliness,  she  found  her  lot  cast  in  with  court- 
iers who  were  rough,  ignorant,  and  quarrelsome.  The  gayety  and 
love  of  pleasure  which  belonged  as  much  to  Mary's  nature  and  age 
as  it  did  to  her  training  was  checked  and  opposed  by  the  austerity 
of  Scotch  Protestantism,  with  its  condemnation  of  all  the  vanities  of 
the  world.  It  is  no  wonder  that  she  found  her  life  irksome. 

306.  Mary  and  Elizabeth. — The  unavoidable  contest  with  Eliza- 
beth soon  began.     Elizabeth  had  already  before  Mary's  return 
to  Scotland  taken  the  part  of  the  Scotch  Protestants  in  a  rising 
against  their  regent.     Mary  tried   steadily   to   induce   Elizabeth 
to  acknowledge  her  as  the  heir  to   the  English  throne,  should 
the  queen  have  no  children.     Elizabeth  as  steadily  avoided  doing 
so.    As  was  natural  she  did  not  like  to  think  of  her  own  death 


THE   REIGN  OF    ELIZABETH  343 

or  failure  of  heirs.  She  feared  besides  that  if  Mary  were  once 
declared  to  be  her  successor  her  death  would  be  so  much  a  matter 
of  desire  to  the  English  Roman  Catholics  and  to  some  of  the  other 
powers  of  Europe  that  an  invasion  of  England  or  her  own  assassi- 
nation might  speedily  follow.  She  therefore  steadily  refused  to 
name  either  Mary  or  any  one  else  as  her  successor. 

Mary  soon  began  to  use  her  position  as  queen  of  Scotland 
to  intrigue  for  the  crown  of  England  also.  With  the  object  of 
strengthening  her  position  with  the  Catholics  both  in  Scotland 
and  in  England  she  married  in  1565  her  cousin,  Lord  Darnley, 
one  of  the  few  Catholic  nobles  in  Scotland,  and  near  in  blood  to 
both  the  Scotch  and  English  crowns,  but  one  of  the  most  worth- 
less of  men.  This  led  to  a  revolt  of  the  Protestant  nobles,  led 
by  the  queen's  illegitimate  brother,  the  earl  of  Murray.  Mary 
promptly  crushed  them,  however,  and  drove  them  into  England 
as  refugees. 

307.  The  Murder  of  Darnley.  —  But  she  had  now  entered  on  a 
policy  of  satisfying  her  own  personal  wishes  and  ambitions  with- 
out consulting  the  interests  of  her  subjects,  and  this  carried  her 
farther  and  farther.  She  soon  learned  to  despise  her  weak  and 
vicious  husband  and  gave  her  confidence  to  an  Italian  secretary  in 
her  service  named  David  Rizzio.  Her  husband  became  jealous  of 
Rizzio,  and  with  a  company  of  nobles  stabbed  him  to  death  in  her 
very  presence  and  summoned  back  the  exiled  Protestant  lords,  with 
whom,  Catholic  as  he  was,  he  had  made  a  temporary  alliance. 

Mary  hid  her  resentment  against  her  husband  until  she  had 
won  him  over  from  the  Protestant  confederacy,  gathered  a  loyal 
army,  and  again  driven  the  recalled  exiles  abroad.  Soon  after  this 
she  bore  a  son  who  was  named  James,  after  her  father,  James  V 
of  Scotland,  and  who  afterwards  became  king  of  both  Scotland  and 
England.  Mary's  pretended  reconciliation  with  her  husband  and 
the  birth  of  her  son  drew  him  closer  to  her,  and  an  attack  of  ill- 
ness made  him  even  more  dependent  upon  her.  He  tried  his  best 
to  win  her  affection  and  support.  But  Mary  had  fallen  in  love, 


344  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

with  all  the  strength  of  her  passionate  nature,  with  the  proud  and 
fierce  earl  of  Bothwell. 

Then  happened  an  event  the  true  circumstances  of  which  have 
never  been  explained.  The  queen  brought  her  husband  to  Kirk- 
a-Field,  a  half-ruined  royal  dwelling  just  inside  the  walls  of  Edin- 
burgh,, Here  she  visited  him  daily  for  a  week  or  more,  returning 
usually  to  Holyrood  to  sleep.  After  she  had  left  him  at  twelve 
o'clock  one  night  the  house  of  Kirk-a- Field  was  blown  up  with 
gunpowder,  and  the  bodies  of  Darnley  and  his  page  were  found  in 
the  morning  near  by,  where  they  appeared  to  have  been  murdered 
during  an  effort  to  escape  from  the  wrecked  building. 

Whether  the  queen  knew  of  the  murder  beforehand  or  not, 
her  lover  Bothwell  certainly  did,  and  either  killed  Darnley  with 
his  own  hand  or  directed  his  death.  Passion  ran  high  and  accu- 
sations against  him  were  made  and  denied.  Shortly  afterward 
the  queen  went  to  Stirling.  Here  she  was  seized  and  carried  off 
by  Bothwell,  as  it  is  generally  believed,  with  her  own  consent. 
While  he  held  her  in  captivity  she  married  him. 

308.  Expulsion  of  Mary  from  Scotland.  —  By  these  actions 
Mary  had  at  last  roused  to  anger  all  classes  of  her  subjects.  Soon 
there  was  a  rebellion.  After  a  fierce  battle,  Bothwell  was  driven 
into  flight  and  the  queen  was  captured  and  imprisoned  in  a  little 
castle  in  the  middle  of  Loch  Leven.  Here  she  was  forced  to 
sign  an  abdication  of  the  crown  and  to  authorize  the  coronation 
of  her  infant  son.  From  her  captivity,  however,  Mary  soon  made 
her  escape  and  fled  to  England,  appealing  to  Elizabeth  to  provide 
her  with  an  army  with  which  to  regain  her  kingdom  and  take 
revenge  on  her  enemies.  While  Elizabeth  was  hesitating  as  to 
what  action  to  take,  the  leaders  of  the  rebellious  Scots  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  English  council  a  certain  silver  casket  captured 
from  Bothwell  containing  a  number  of  letters  and  other  docu- 
ments. The  letters  seemed  to  be  in  Mary's  handwriting  and  to 
have  been  sent  by  her  to  Bothwell  during  the  months  preceding 
her  husband's  murder.  They  showed  not  only  knowledge  of  the 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  345 

plans  for  the  murder,  but  base  treachery  and  reckless  willingness 
to  sacrifice  all  her  own  and  her  country's  interests  to  her  lover. 

These  "casket  letters,"  as  they  have  since  been  called,  have 
been  declared  by  many  to  be  forgeries,  and  to  this  day  no  cer- 
tainty has  been  reached  as  to  whether  they  were  genuine  or  false. 
But  they  were  believed  then  by  Elizabeth's  council  to  be  genuine, 
and  Elizabeth  could  not,  therefore,  if  she  had  wished,  venture  to 
place  Mary  upon  the  throne  of  Scotland.  As  Mary's  actions  had 
deprived  her  of  the  support  of  the  Scotch  people,  it  seemed  to 
Elizabeth  to  be  on  the  whole  to  her  own  interest  to  keep  Mary 
in  England  without  either  agreeing  or  refusing  to  help  her.  For 
nineteen  years,  therefore,  from  1568  to  1587,  the  unfortunate 
Queen  of  Scots  remained  a  prisoner  in  England,  pining  in  cap- 
tivity and  spending  half  a  lifetime  weaving  fruitless  plots. 

309.  Elizabeth's  Marriage  Plans. — The  people  of  England 
were  anxious  that  Elizabeth  should  marry  and  have  children  who 
should  inherit  the  throne  after  her.  But  whom  should  she  marry? 
If  she  had  consulted  her  own  wishes  she  would  gladly  have  mar- 
ried Sir  Robert  Dudley,  whom  she  made  earl  of  Leicester.  But 
Dudley  was  already  married,  and  although  his  wife  died  oppor- 
tunely at  his  castle  of  Kenilworth,  he  was  so  deeply  suspected 
of  having  had  her  murdered  that  the  queen's  marriage  to  him 
would  have  been  a  public  scandal.  Elizabeth  recognized  this, 
and,  although  she  treated  him  as  a  lover  and  talked  frequently  of 
marrying  him,  probably  never  really  expected  to.  The  influence 
of  all  her  best  advisers  was  against  him,  as  he  was  personally 
unworthy.  Moreover,  a  queen  can  seldom  choose  her  husband 
from  mere  motives  of  love,  and  least  of  all  at  that  time  could  the 
political  needs  of  the  country  be  neglected  in  such  a  matter. 
The  choice  of  an  English  husband  would  have  been  popular,  but 
the  queen  did  not  approve  of  any  English  nobleman  but  Dudley. 

Elizabeth  must  have  been  conscious  from  her  earliest  life  that 
the  selection  of  her  husband  was  purely  a  matter  of  politics. 
The  choice  of  a  prince  of  any  one  of  the  royal  families  of  Europe 


346 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


for  a  husband  would  be  the  same  as  the  choice  of  an  alliance  foi 
England.  Yet  the  policy  of  England  was  to  avoid  an  alliance  with 
any  foreign  country  so  close  as  to  bring  her  into  conflict  with 
others.  Partly  because  of  this  difficulty,  partly  from  her  love  for 
Dudley,  partly  from  her  own  fickleness  and  vacillation,  her  reign 
saw  a  succession  of  what  were  treated  as  courtships,  but  which 
were  rather  negotiations  for  foreign  treaties.  Even  while  Elizabeth 
was  a  young  girl  two  or  three  different  plans  for  her  marriage  had 
been  proposed.  Immediately  after  her  accession  to  the  throne, 
Philip  II,  who  had  been  her  sister  Mary's  husband,  offered  to  marry 
her  and  continue  the  alliance  with  Spain. 
This  proposal  was  declined.  Through 
the  succeeding  years  one  suitor  after 
another  either  visited  the  English  court 
in  person  or  was  proposed  and  discussed 
by  ambassadors,  ministers,  the  queen, 
and  the  court  ladies.  The  Scotch  earl 
of  Arran,  Eric,  king  of  Sweden,  the  arch- 
duke Charles  of  Austria,  Philibert  of 
Savoy,  Charles  IX  of  France,  the  duke 
of  Anjou,  the  duke  of  Alen^on  pass  in  a 
seemingly  endless  procession  of  suitors 
through  the  chronicles  of  the  time.  The 
queen  was  more  than  forty  years  old  be- 
fore the  comedy  ceased  to  be  played. 

The  negotiations  were  often  spun  out  merely  to  serve  a  political 
purpose ;  the  vanity  of  Elizabeth  was  pleased  with  the  flattery  of 
constant  love  letters  and  love  speeches,  and  she  liked  to  think  of 
marrying.  She  dallied  with  the  various  plans  as  long  as  she  dared, 
and  more  than  once  made  not  only  her  suitors  but  her  ministers 
believe  her  intentions  were  serious,  but  her  good  sense,  her  devo- 
tion to  the  best  interests  of  England,  and  her  unwillingness  to  lose 
the  freedom  of  her  single  state  always  prevented  the  marriage  from 
taking  place,  and  she  grew  old  and  died  unmarried. 


The  Duke  of  Alencon 


THE   REIGN   OF  ELIZABETH  347 

310.  Increase  of  Puritanism.  — The  religious  settlement  intro- 
duced by  Elizabeth  was  preserved  with  difficulty.     The  Puritans 
became  constantly  more  numerous.     Some  of  the  bishops,  many 
of  the  parish  ministers,  and  an  ever-increasing  number  of  the 
people  were  opposed  to  the  ceremonies  of  the  established  church 
and  even  to  some  of  its  doctrines  and  its  mode  of  government. 
The  Reformation  in  England  began  to  interest  the  mass  of  the 
people.     Many  congregations  and  their  pastors  dropped  the  form 
of  service  required  by  law ;  "  prophesyings,"  or  meetings  of  clergy- 
men and  laymen  for  the  discussion  of  religious  subjects,  were  held ; 
and  at  London  new  congregations  were  organized  which  met  not 
in  the  parish  churches  but  in  other  buildings  and  followed  other 
religious  practices.     In  parliament  a  majority  of  the  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons  were  Puritans  and  introduced  law  after 
law  intended  to  make  changes  in  the  established  church  in  the 
direction  of  more  complete  Protestantism. 

Against  these  proceedings  Elizabeth  took  vigorous  action.  In 
1570  Thomas  Cartwright,  a  professor  at  Cambridge,  was  removed 
from  his  position  for  Puritan  teaching ;  the  newly  formed  congre- 
gations in  London  were  broken  up,  those  who  attended  them 
imprisoned,  and  all  irregular  religious  meetings  forbidden ;  cler- 
gymen who  refused  to  accept  in  their  entirety  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  or  to  agree  to  use  only  the  prayer  book  in  public  worship 
were  deprived  of  their  benefices.  Somewhat  greater  uniformity  in 
the  church  was  thus  obtained  for  a  while,  but  it  was  only  a  seeming 
uniformity.  The  real  divisions  were  still  great  and  constantly 
becoming  greater. 

311.  The  Counter  Reformation. — The  Roman  Catholics  also 
were  becoming  more  active  if  not  more   numerous.     This  was 
principally  due  to  what  is  known  as  the  "  counter  reformation." 
This  movement  consisted "  partly  of  a  moral  reform   in  the  old 
church,  partly  of  a  clearer  statement  of  its  doctrines,  and  partly 
of  more  active  personal  efforts  of  Catholics  to  stem  the  tide  of 
Protestant  influence.     The  more  earnest  Roman  Catholic  leaders, 


348  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

realizing  the  need  of  reforms  in  the  church  if  it  were  not  to  con- 
tinue to  be  the  object  of  the  just  criticism  and  successful  attacks 
of  the  Protestants,  chose  better  men  to  the  papacy  and  brought 
about  the  choice  of  better  bishops.  The  bishops  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  secure  greater  learning  and  more  devout  lives  among  the 
lower  clergy.  The  doctrines  of  the  church  were  put  in  more 
definite  form  and  many  doubtful  points  settled  by  the  decrees 
of  a  great  church  council  held  at  Trent  between  the  years  1545 
and  1563. 

312.  The  Jesuits.  —  New  power  was  introduced  into  the  Cath- 
olic church  by  the  foundation  in  1540  of  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
This  was  a  monastic  order  formed  by  a  group  of  young  Spanish 
students  under  the  leadership  of  Ignatius  Loyola.  They  took 
the  usual  monastic  vows,  but  added  to  them  an  additional  oath 
of  special  obedience  to  the  pope.  Their  organization  was  pecul- 
iar and  effective.  They  were  -governed  like  a  military  body  by 
a  "general,"  who  was  in  direct  communication  with  the  pope, 
and  by  a "  provincial "  in  each  of  the  principal  countries  of 
Europe.  Absolute  obedience  to  these  superiors  was  a  fundamental 
rule  of  their  order.  Any  member  of  the  order  was  bound  to  go 
where  he  was  sent,  to  devote  himself  to  the  work  appointed  him, 
and  to  carry  out  unquestioningly  his  instructions  in  the  form  they 
were  given  him.  The  education  and  training  required  of  a  candi- 
date before  he  was  admitted  to  full  membership  in  the  order  was 
long  and  severe,  so  that  a  Jesuit  was  always  a  well-educated  and 
thoroughly  trained  man.  Their  enthusiasm  and  devotion  were 
equal  to  their  training.  They  took  up  as  special  tasks,  education, 
the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  and  the  reconversion  of  Protestants 
to  Catholicism.  They  soon  became  famous  and  influential  in  almost 
every  country  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  America.  Such  men,  burning 
with  devotion,  were  not  likely  to  remain  away  from  England  because 
the  laws  forbade  mass  to  be  performed  there  and  required  all  Eng- 
lishmen to  attend  the  service  of  the  established  church.  Several 
made  their  way  into  England,  disguised  as  ordinary  travelers,  and 


THE    REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  349 

did  much  to  strengthen  in  their  faith  those  Englishmen  who  had 
always  remained  Catholics,  and  to  win  back  to  Catholicism  many 
who  had  become  Protestants  or  who  had  weakly  conformed  to 
the  state  religion.  A  college  was  established  by  some  English 
Catholic  exiles,  at  Douai  on  the  Belgian  coast  just  opposite  Eng- 
land, for  the  training  of  young  English  Catholics,  many  of  whom 
became  priests  and  returned  secretly  to  England. 

Thus  by  the  middle  of  Elizabeth's  reign  the  Roman  Catholics 
were  really  a  greater  problem  than  they  had  been  at  its  beginning. 
They  were  probably  not  more  numerous,  but  they  were  stronger 
and  more  earnest  in  their  belief  and  in  their  devotion  to  their 
church. 

313.  Political  Danger  from  the  Catholics. — The  Catholics  in 
England  were  a  constant  danger  to  Elizabeth.  The  imprisonment 
of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  did  not  make  her  any  less  dangerous  as  a 
Roman  Catholic  candidate  for  the  throne.  In  some  ways  it  made 
her  cause  stronger.  The  English  Catholic  nobles  felt  it  a  duty 
and  honor  to  succor  their  mistress  in  her  distress.  The  king  of 
Spain,  when  he  failed  to  obtain  Elizabeth's  alliance,  planned  to 
secure  Mary's  release  and  enthronement  in  England  as  an  ally  for 
himself.  Her  presence,  therefore,  made  her  a  permanent  center 
of  intrigue.  In  1569,  soon  after  Mary's  arrival  in  England,  there 
was  a  rebellion  in  her  favor  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  nobles. 
This  was  soon  put  down,  although  it  gave  occasion  for  the  inflic- 
tion of  bloody  punishment  on  those  who  had  taken  part  in  it. 
In  1570  Elizabeth  was  excommunicated  by  the  pope,  and  a  bull 
proclaiming  her  deposition  was  found  nailed  on  the  door  of  the 
dwelling  of  the  bishop  of  London. 

More  severe  laws  against  the  Catholics  were  now  passed.  All 
who  brought  papal  bulls  into  England,  and  all  who  converted  Prot- 
estant Englishmen  to  Catholicism,  or  were  themselves  converted, 
were  declared  to  be  traitors  and  were  to  be  punished  as  such. 
Later  the  "  Recusancy  Laws  "  were  passed.  These  imposed  fines 
and  imprisonment  upon  persons  saying  or  hearing  mass,  and 


350  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

additional  penalties  to  those  before  imposed  were  levied  upon  those 
absenting  themselves  from  the  regular  church  services.  Campion 
and  Parsons,  two  influential  Jesuits,  were  arrested  and  put  to  the 
torture.  Parsons  escaped,  but  Campion  was  executed  as  a  traitor. 
Several  "  seminary  priests,"  as  the  graduates  of  Douai  were  called, 
were  also  captured  and  some  of  them  hung.  Notwithstanding 
this  severity  a  serious  plot  was  soon  discovered.  Philip  was  to 
lead  an  army  into  England,  Mary  was  to  be  liberated  and  to 
marry  the  Catholic  duke  of  Norfolk,  the  highest  nobleman  in 
England,  Elizabeth  was  to  be  deposed  and  Mary  crowned,  and 
Roman  Catholicism  again  to  become  the  religion  of  the  country. 
This  is  known  as  the  "Ridolfi  Plot,"  from  .an  Italian  merchant  in 
England  who  acted  as  the  messenger  between  the  parties  con- 
cerned in  it.  All  was  discovered  before  any  action  had  been  taken, 
and  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  was  beheaded  for  his  share  in  it.  From 
this  time  forward  an  invasion  either  by  Spain  or  France,  or  by  the 
two  countries  together,  to  help  the  Catholics  dethrone  Elizabeth 
was  a  recognized  danger. 

314.  England  and  the  Continent.  —  Various  causes,  some  of 
them  the  good  fortune,  some  the  wise  policy  of  England,  pre- 
vented this  invasion  from  taking  place.  One  cause  was  the  internal 
troubles  of  both  Spain  and  France.  The  Netherlanders,  who 
were  under  the  government  of  Spain,  in  1572  rose  in  revolt  and 
fought  for  their  independence  under  the  prince  of  Orange  through 
the  whole  remainder  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  effort  to  put 
down  this  rebellion  kept  the  troops  of  Philip  of  Spain  occupied 
and  exhausted  his  funds  so  that  he  was  in  no  position  to  enter 
into  a  struggle  with  England.  From  motives  of  policy  Elizabeth 
helped  to  keep  this  rebellion  alive  by  occasionally  sending  money 
to  the  prince  of  Orange  and  by  allowing  English  volunteers  to 
serve  under  his  banner.  But  she  hated  rebels  and  gave  the  Dutch 
but  little  consistent  or  whole-hearted  encouragement.  France 
also  was  torn  by  civil  wars  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Hugue- 
nots, as  the  French  Protestants  were  called.  To  the  Huguenots 


THE    REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH  351 

Elizabeth  likewise  gave  some  reluctant  encouragement,  so  that  they 
might  remain  strong  enough  to  cripple  the  royal  power  of  France. 

A  second  way  in  which  the  danger  of  invasion  was  avoided  was 
by  playing  off  the  two  great  continental  powers  against  one 
another.  England  always  helped  to  keep  up  the  quarrels  between 
Spain  and  France.  She  never  herself  quarreled  with  one  of  them 
without  showing  herself  at  the  same  time  more  friendly  to  the 
other.  The  interminable  marriage  negotiations  of  Elizabeth  also 
served  as  a  useful  means  of  accomplishing  this  purpose.  So  long 
as  a  marriage  with  a  French  prince  was  in  prospect  there  could  be 
no  probability  of  an  invasion  from  France,  because  such  a  marriage 
would  mean  a  friendly  alliance  between  the  two  countries.  Spain, 
on  the  other  hand,  must  for  the  time  postpone  invasion  for  fear 
she  might  have  to  fight  both  England  and  England's  proposed  ally. 
The  same  security  against  France  was  obtained  when  a  Spanish 
candidate  for  her  hand  was  being  considered. 

But  the  time  came  when  neither  the  internal  difficulties  of 
France  and  Spain  nor  the  queen's  skillful  pitting  of  them  against 
one  another  was  sufficient  to  keep  them  from  secretly  planning  a 
joint  invasion.  The  plots  formed  by  English  Catholics  for  the 
dethronement  or  assassination  of  Elizabeth  and  the  release  of 
Mary  usually  included  the  plan  of  asking  help  from  abroad. 
They  were,  however,  one  after  another  discovered,  and  several  of 
those  concerned  in  them  put  to  death. 

After  1583  it  became  evident  that  these  plots  were  known  to 
the  Spanish  government,  to  at  least  one  party  in  France,  to  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots  in  her  imprisonment  in  England,  as  well  as  to 
many  Catholic  Englishmen,  some  living  abroad  and  some  living 
in  England.  The  moment  Elizabeth's  assassination  should  occur 
a  Spanish  army  from  Flanders  or  a  French  army  from  Normandy, 
or  both,  would  be  sent  to  England,  Mary  would  be  released,  and 
the  whole  character  of  the  English  government  changed.  When 
the  complicity  of  Spain  in  one  of  these  conspiracies  became  evident 
in  1584,  the  queen  sent  the  Spanish  ambassador  out  of  England. 


352  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

315.  The  Parties  which  favored  Elizabeth.  —  Thus,  after  Eliza- 
beth had  been  queen  for  twenty-five  years,  her  position  might  seem 
at  first  glance  to  be  no  more  secure  than  when  she  had  ascended 
the  throne.     This,  however, -was  not  the  case.     The  generation 
which  had  now  grown  up  had  known  no  other  religious  forms  than 
those  of  the  established  church,  and  their  feeling  towards  it  was 
very  different  from  that  of  the  previous  generation.    What  their 
fathers  had  accepted  as  the  best  compromise  or  as  a  matter  of 
small  interest,  they  had  become  really  attached  to.     The  forcns 
and  ceremonies  of  the  church  of  England  as  established  by  law 
had  become  dear  to  many  for  their  own  sake.    Such  persons  were 
earnest  supporters  of  Elizabeth's  government  on  religious  grounds. 

Others  had  learned  to  feel  a  patriotic  respect  and  affection  for 
the  government  which  had  kept  England  free  and  independent 
of  other  countries  and  in  internal  peace  for  such  a  long  time. 
These  were  ready  to  give  it  support  on  political  grounds. 

316.  Industrial  Growth. — The  English  people  were  moreover 
coming  to  have  new  interests,  which  did  more  to  increase  the 
general  strength  of  the  nation  and  the  popularity  of  Elizabeth's 
government  than  any  of  the  direct  efforts  of  the  queen  and  her 
ministers  to  solve  the  religious  and  political  difficulties  of  the 
time.    The  Merchants  Adventurers,  who  had  obtained  the  recog- 
nition of  Henry  VII,  and  the  other  traders  who  were  even  then 
venturing  from  year  to  year  into  new  ports,  had  grown  during  the 
sixteenth  century  from  few  to  many,  and  their  enterprise  carried 
them  constantly  to  new  ports.    There  was  a  much  greater  variety 
of  goods  to  export  than  before.    The  troubles  of  the  Reformation 
had  driven  from  the  continent  many  workmen,  who  came  with 
their    families   to   England   seeking  a  refuge  and  bringing  with 
them  their  skill  and  their  knowledge  of  manufacturing  processes. 
Several  groups  of  Flemings,  Dutch,  and  Walloons,  fleeing  from  the 
persecutions  of  Alva,  the  Spanish  governor  of  the  Netherlands, 
obtained  permission  to  settle  in  Sandwich,  Norwich,  and   other 
towns.    There  they  established  and  afterwards  taught  the  English 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  353 

the  weaving  of  new  and  fine  kinds  of  woolen  and  linen  goods  and 
other  industries.  Huguenot  silk  weavers  and  manufacturers  of 
other  fine  goods  also  came  from  France.  Under  these  influences 
and  in  the  general  activity  of  the  time  there  was  so  much  weaving 
of  cloth  that  wool  ceased  altogether  to  be  exported,  being  all 
woven  into  cloth  within  England,  and  great  quantities  of  this 
were  sent  abroad  in  the  way  of  trade. 

317.  Commercial  Growth.  —  English  merchants  did  not  merely 
sell  English  manufactured  goods  abroad,  but  made  their  way  to 
ports  of  the  world  where  they  could  buy  goods  that  could  be 
brought  home  and  sold  in  England.  They  traded  to  the  ports 
of  Spain,  France,  the  Netherlands,  and  Germany.  Cargoes  were 
taken  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  English  traders  were  seen  in 
the  ports  of  Syria  and  Asia  Minor  in  one  direction,  and  in  the 
towns  of  the  Baltic  in  another. 

But  in  all  these  places  they  had  to  compete  with  the  other 
nations  who  had  been  before  them,  and  from  time  to  time  ports 
were  closed  when  war  or  some  threat  of  war  interfered.  Still 
bolder  merchants  and  explorers,  therefore,  sailed  away  to  more  dis- 
tant shores  in  search  of  opportunities  to  buy  and  sell.  As  early  as 
the  reign  of  Mary  two  bold  navigators,  Willoughby  and  Chancellor, 
started  on  a  voyage  around  the  North  Cape,  hoping  by  a  north- 
east passage  to  reach  China  and  the  East  Indies.  Willoughby 
and  all  his  crew  were  frozen  to  death  or  starved  while  their  vessel 
was  held  fast  in  the  ice.  Chancellor  with  the  other  vessel  made 
his  way  into  the  White  Sea,  went  by  boat  up  the  Dwina,  and  finally 
reached  Moscow.  With  this  region  a  regular  trade  was  soon 
opened  up.  An  association  of  merchants  known  as  the  Muscovy 
or  Russia  Company  was  formed,  and  when  an  ambassador  came 
from  Russia  to  England  a  few  years  afterwards  there  were  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  merchants  of  that  company  to  receive  him  in  state. 

To  gain  greater  strength  and  protection  it  was  customary  at 
that  time  for  merchants  trading  to  any  one  country  to  form 
themselves  into  a  company  and  obtain  a  charter  from  the  crown 


354  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

granting  them  the  monopoly  of  that  trade  under  certain  regula- 
tions, on  the  model  of  the  Merchants  Adventurers.  Thus  the 
Levant  or  Turkey  Company  was  formed  to  trade  with  the  eastern 
Mediterranean  lands,  an  Eastland  or  Baltic  Company  to  trade  with 
Poland  and  Prussia,  a  Barbary  Company  to  trade  with  northern 
and  a  Guinea  Company  to  trade  with  western  Africa,  and  just 
at  the  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign  one  which  was  destined  to  become 
far  the  greatest  of  them  all,  —  the  East  India  Company.  Sup- 
ported in  some  cases  by  these  companies,  in  others  by  small 
groups  of  adventurers,  many  half-exploring,  half-trading  expedi- 
tions were  sent  out  during  the  latter  half  of  the  reign. 

318.  Attempted  Settlements  in  America.  —  These  companies 
and  the  expeditions  they  sent  out  had  no  idea  beyond  the  open- 
ing up  of  trade  with  the  native  races  of  the  various  countries  that 
they  reached.  But  some  men  looked  farther  ahead  and  planned 
settlements  which  should  not  only  form  the  bases  of  trade  but 
should  become  parts  of  England  beyond  the  seas.  In  1578 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  obtained  a  grant  from  the  queen  authoriz- 
ing him  to  establish  settlements  in  any  unoccupied  country.  In 
1583  he  established  some  colonists  in  Newfoundland,  but  they 
perished  on  land  and  their  leader  was  lost  soon  afterwards  at  sea. 

His  patent  was  then  regranted  to  his  half-brother,  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh.  He  sought  to  establish  a  colony  farther  south  on  the 
American  coast,  with  which  he  made  himself  familiar  by  sending 
out  exploring  expeditions.  It  was  by  Raleigh's  favor  with  the 
queen  that  the  name  Virginia,  after  the  virgin  queen,  was  given 
to  the  part  of  North  America  that  the  English  claimed,  and  he 
introduced  into  England  from  that  country  the  use  of  tobacco  and 
potatoes.  Three  successive  bodies  of  colonists  were  sent  out  by 
Raleigh  under  charge  of  Sir  Richard  Grenville  and  John  White, 
between  1585  and  1587,  but  they  all  either  returned  to  England 
or  were  destroyed  by  famine,  disease,  or  the  Indians.  Raleigh  lost 
his  fortune  in  the  attempted  settlements  and  in  his  explorations, 
but  he  never  lost  his  keen  interest  in  discoveries  or  his  belief  in 


THE    REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  355 

the  future  of  American  colonization.  In  1602  another  attempt 
at  settlement  was  made  by  Bartholomew  Gosnold,  but  this  also 
was  a  failure. 

319.  The  Search  for  a  Northwest  Passage. — The  great  object 
of  search  in  many  of  the  other  exploring  expeditions  of  the  time 
was  a  northern  route  to  India  and  China.    As  the  Spaniards  already 
held  control  of  the  southern  parts  of  America  and  the  West  Indies% 
attention  was  turned  to  the  possibility  of  finding  a  passage  west- 
ward to  India  around  the  northern  coast  of  North  America.     In 
1576  Martin  Frobisher  organized  and  led  an  expedition  to  Amer- 
ica with  this  object.     He  discovered  and  entered  the  strait  and 
bay  which  still  bear  his  name,  but  got  no  farther  west,  for  this 
and  two  later  trips  in  the  next  two  years  were  wasted  in  gathering 
cargoes  of  a  certain  black  stone  from  an  arctic  island,  which  he 
and  Queen  Elizabeth's  assayers  at  first  thought  was  silver  ore. 
A  few  years  afterward,  in  1585,  John  Davis,  a  bold  and  skillful 
navigator,  made  the  first  of  three  trips  which  carried   him  up 
through  the  strait  which  is  also  named  after  him,  but  his  voyages, 
for  all  their  heroism,  brought  back  little  more  than  new  tales  of 
suffering  and  privation  in  the  icy  north.    Hudson  and  Baffin  soon 
followed,  each  threading  his  way  a  little  farther  through  the  maze 
of  land  and  water  to  the  northwest.    The  spirit  of  adventure  could 
not  resist  the  attractions  of  this  search  for  a  northwest  passage, 
filled  with  danger  and  unproductive  of  profit  as  it  proved  to  be. 

320.  Hawkins's    Voyages.  —  Other    restless    English    traders 
could  not  content  themselves  with  such  fruitless  explorations  and 
unproductive  voyages  when  they  had  reason  to  believe  that  far 
more  profitable  ventures  might  be  made  in  other  directions.     A 
source  of  almost  unlimited  gain  existed  in  the  slave  trade  between 
Africa  and  the  Spanish  settlements  in  America  and  the  West  Indies. 
Negro  slaves  had  been  early  introduced  from  the  west  coast  of 
Africa  into  the  Spanish  settlements   in   America.     The  Spanish 
government,  however,  disapproved   of  slave    trading   and    only 
allowed  negroes  to  be  imported  into  the  American  colonies  in 


356  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

small  numbers,  by  favored  traders,  and  on  payment  of  a  heavy 
duty.  It  was  well  known  that  the  Spanish  colonists  in  the 
West  Indies,  Mexico,  and  South  America  were  eager  to  buy 
slaves  whether  their  home  government  approved  it  or  not,  and 
that  negroes  would  probably  bring  a  good  price  and  find  ready 
sale  if  brought  there. 

In  1562  John  Hawkins  of  Plymouth  with  another  captain  fitted 
out  three  vessels,  sailed  away  to  the  coast  of  Sierra  Leone,  cap- 
tured or  bought  about  three  hundred  negroes,  and  then  made 
their  way  to  the  Spanish  colony  of  St.  Domingo,  into  which  they 
pretended  to  have  been  driven  by  stress  of  weather.  The  gov- 
ernor, in  spite  of  orders  from  home,  made  but  slight  resistance  to 
the  English  adventurer's  proposal  to  sell  some  of  the  negroes  to 
obtain  money  to  pay  his  expenses,  and  eventually  Hawkins  dis- 
posed of  most  of  his  wretched  cargo,  bought  some  hides,  and 
returned  to  England.  The  Spanish  government  protested  against 
this  action  and  forbade  its  repetition.  The  king  of  Spain,  in 
addition  to  his  opposition  to  the  trade  in  negro  slaves,  wanted  no 
intrusion  of  English  traders  into  the  Spanish  colonies.  Never- 
theless Hawkins  was  soon  again  on  the  coast  of  Africa  and  then 
in  the  West  Indies  with  some  hundreds  of  negroes,  and  by 
threatening  the  governors  and  small  military  guards  at  various 
Spanish  ports  he  again  disposed  of  his  slaves.  So  in  voyage  after 
voyage,  in  some  of  which  members  of  the  queen's  council  and 
even  the  queen  herself  invested  money,  Hawkins  and  other  Eng- 
lish traders  pursued  their  odious  trade,  —  kidnapping  African 
negroes  and  then  forcing  their  way  into  the  Spanish  colonies  and 
finding  a  profitable  market  for  their  wares. 

321.  Conflicts  in  the  West  Indies. — These  voyages  gave  fre- 
quent occasion  for  conflicts  with  the  Spaniards  on  the  water. 
More  than  once  English  traders  fought  with  Spanish  men  of  war, 
and  occasionally  captured  Spanish  trading  vessels.  When  Eng- 
lishmen were  captured  and  held  as  prisoners,  Spaniards  were 
seized  as  hostages  for  them,  and  Spanish  goods  were  confiscated 


EARLY   VOYAGES  AND  PLACES 

OF   TRADE  OF 
CHARTKRED    COMMERCIAL    COMPANIES 


357 


358 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


in  reprisal.     English  voyages  to  the  West  Indies  became  more 
and  more  like  piracy. 

There  was  no  war  between  England  and  Spain,  but  the  Span- 
iards were  Catholics  and  the  English  were  Protestants,  and  enough 
excuse  for  hostility  was  found  in  that  fact.  Most  of  the  seamen 
from  the  English  trading  towns  were  Puritans,  and  in  the  bitter 
religious  hatred  of  those  days  believed  that  in  fighting  against 
Catholics  they  were  attacking  the  enemies  of  God.  The  Catholics, 
on  the  other  hand,  looked  upon  the  Protestant  English  as  little  bet- 
ter than  heathen.  Thus  trading  enterprise,  supplemented  by  reli- 
gious hatred,  was  fast  drawing  Englishmen  and  Spaniards  into  war 
at  sea,  while  their  governments  continued  to  be  at  peace  on  shore. 
322.  Francis  Drake.  —  In  1572  Francis  Drake,  a  young  sea 
captain,  a  relative  of  Hawkins,  and  like  him  a  Devonshire  man, 
sailed  directly  to  Spanish  America  with  the  unconcealed  intention 
of  pillaging  the  rich  Spanish  possessions.  He  ran  into  the  West 

Indian  harbors,  captured  vessels 
lying  there,  seized  what  he  wished, 
burned  towns,  and  killed  those  who 
resisted.  He  intercepted  and  plun- 
dered the  train  of  mules  bringing 
gold  and  silver  from  the  mines  of 
Peru  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
and  Drake  himself  saw  from  the 
mountains  the  blue  waters  of  the 
Pacific.  He  returned  to  England 
loaded  with  booty,  having  captured 
a  Spanish  treasure  ship  on  the  way 
home.  This  was  piracy  pure  and 
simple,  but  the  easy  conscience  and 
shrewd  diplomacy  of  Elizabeth 
approved  rather  than  condemned,  and  she  laughed  with  the  rest 
of  England  at  the  exploit,  shared  the  booty,  and  put  off  the 
Spanish  ambassador  with  fair  words. 


Sir  Francis  Drake 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  359 

In  1577,  the  year  of  Frobisher's  second  trip  to  seek  the  north- 
west passage,  Drake  organized  and  led  another  expedition  which 
was  destined  to  become  the  most  famous  of  all  the  voyages  made 
from  Elizabethan  England.  With  five  vessels  and  a  company  of 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty  men,  well  provided  with  arms  and  stores, 
and  none  except  the  leader  knowing  where  they  were  going,  they 
sailed  away  to  the  westward.  They  reached  the  West  Indies,  but 
instead  of  cruising  there  sailed  southward  along  the  coast  of  South 
America  till  they  reached  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  These  had, 
been  penetrated  only  once,  by  the  great  Portuguese  navigator 
who  had  left  them  his  name.  Drake  and  his  party  made  their  way 
safely  through,  but  were  beaten  about  by  terrible  storms  as  they 
emerged  into  the  Pacific.  One  of  the  vessels  now  turned  back, 
three  others  were  lost  or  destroyed,  and  mutiny  was  only  crushed 
by  bringing  to  trial  and  execution  upon  the  barren  shore  one  of  the 
gentlemen  of  the  expedition  who  was  trying  to  stir  up  sedition. 
But  they  had  reached  at  last  the  west  coast  of  South  America 
lined  with  rich  Spanish  settlements  all  unsuspicious  of  any  ene- 
mies in  those  distant  waters. 

After  wintering  in  the  shelter  of  the  coast,  Drake's  one  remain- 
ing vessel,  the  little  "  Pelican,"  with  less  than  a  hundred  men, 
passed  up  the  coasts  of  Chile  and  Peru.  Appearing  suddenly  in 
port  after  port,  they  seized  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones,  cap- 
tured and  rifled  rich  galleons,  and  left  their  victims  dumbfounded 
while  they  sailed  on  northward  to  the  coast  of  North  America. 
They  followed  this  up  as  far  as  the  present  site  of  San  Francisco, 
hoping  to  find  a  passageway  through  the  continent  home  again. 
Finding  none  and  dreading  pursuit,  they  determined  to  sail  on 
westward.  The  brave  little  ship  crossed  the  vast  Pacific,  threaded 
its  way  through  the  East  Indies,  rounded  the  Cape,  of  Good  Hope, 
and  finally  reentered  Plymouth  harbor  almost  two  years  after  Drake 
and  his  crew  had  left  it.  This  was  the  second  voyage  around 
the  world.  The  "  Pelican  "  was  loaded  with  bars  of  gold,  boxes  of 
precious  stones,  and  tons  of  silver,  amounting  in  value  to  some 


360  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

four  million  dollars.  The  booty  was  divided  among  all  those 
who  had  shared  in  the  responsibility,  the  expense,  or  the  labor 
of  the  expedition.  The  queen,  ministers,  courtiers,  London  citi- 
zens, Drake  himself,  and  his  companions  all  shared  in  the  plunder 
of  the  Spaniards. 

323.  The  Channel  Freebooters.  —  Those  who  took  part  in  and 
profited  by  such  expeditions  might  excuse  them  on  the  ground  of 
religion,  and  claim  that  England  and  Spain  were  so  nearly  at  war 
as  to  justify  their  subjects  in  treating  one  another  as  enemies.  In 
the  English  Channel  and  adjacent  waters  there  were,  however, 
many  English  freebooters  who  could  not  plead  even  that  justifica- 
tion. The  religious  troubles  in  England  under  Edward  and  Mary 
had  sent  many  refugees  abroad,  at  one  time  Catholic,  at  another 
Protestant.  Many  of  these  instead  of  going  into  hopeless  exile 
had  fitted  out  vessels  in  the  southwestern  and  Irish  harbors,  had 
gathered  around  themselves  wild,  lawless  crews  of  sailors,  and  had 
made  use  of  any  opportunities  for  plunder  that  the  foreign  wars 
and  confusions  might  throw  in  their  way. 

The  more  settled, conditions  under  Elizabeth  had  brought  many 
of  them  back  into  the  regular  service  of  the  crown ;  but  even  yet 
the  landed  gentry  of  the  western  counties  who  held  lands  along  the 
rivers  and  harbors,  merchants  of  the  seaport  towns,  and  restless 
adventurers  held  shares  in  vessels  which  were  sometimes  engaged 
in  regular  trade  but  more  often  occupied  in  piracy.  They  seized 
Spanish,  Portuguese,  Italian,  and  even  French  and  Dutch  vessels 
that  came  through  the  Channel,  stripped  them  of  the  most  valuable 
parts  of  their  cargoes,  and  then  slipped  away  to  some  distant 
harbor  or  on  a  trading  or  fishing  voyage.  In  this  way  hundreds 
of  the  small  vessels  of  those  times,  owned  by  gentry  and  mer- 
chants, under  reckless  captains  and  filled  with  bold  and  skillful 
sailors,  were  little  if  any  better  than  freebooters  or  pirates.  The 
queen  and  her  ministers  were  not  able  to  keep  them  in  order  and 
prevent  their  depredations.  Probably  they  did  not  try  very  hard, 
for  the  freebooters  were  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Spaniards,  with 


THE    REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH  361 

whom  war  was  always  a  possibility,  and  their  trade  gave  occupa- 
tion to  disorderly  men  who  might  have  made  still  more  trouble  at 
home  if  they  did  not  have  this  as  a  safety  valve. 

324.  The  English  on  the  Sea.  —  So  on  all  the  shores  of  Europe 
and  on  the  coasts  of  America,  in  various  forms  of  activity  ran- 
ging from  legitimate  trading  to  actual  piracy,  English  merchants, 
explorers,  and  sailors  were  planning  settlements,  gaining  footholds 
for  trade,  winning  a  part  of  the  world's  commerce,  and  seizing  the 
valuable  freightage  of  the  vessels  of  others.     The  interests  of  such 
men  were  largely  drawn  away  from  the  internal  affairs  of  England. 
They  looked  upon  questions  of  religion  and  politics  principally 
from  the  point  of  view  of  their  effect  on  their  own  enterprises. 
They  valued  the  government  of  Queen  Elizabeth  because  it  gave 
them  the  opportunities  they  needed.     She  herself  sympathized 
heartily  with  the  adventure,  the  boldness,  even  the  recklessness.of 
those  who  were  carrying  England's  name  and  trade  so  far  abroad. 
English  national  feeling  was  becoming  stronger  and  stronger,  and 
all  this  gathered  around  the  queen.     The  generation  of  English- 
men who  were  growing  up  were  coming  to  identify  Elizabeth  with 
patriotism,  and  to  hold  patriotism  dearer  than  ever  before   in 
English  history.     Thus,  although  the  increase  of  Catholic  feeling, 
gathering  around  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  supported  by  Spain  and 
France,  seemed  to  be  making  Elizabeth's  position  more  difficult 
after  the  middle  years  of  her  reign,  other  influences  far  stronger 
were  making  her  position  more  secure.     She  had  become  popular 
even  with  the  Puritans  and  with  many  of  the  Roman  Catholics. 

325.  Babington's  Plot.  —  Nevertheless  plotting  still  continued 
among  those  who  were  most  strongly  attached  to  Mary  and  most 
enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  Catholic  church.    In  1586  what  is 
known  as  "  Babington's  Plot "  was  discovered.    A  young  Catholic 
gentleman  of  that  name,  along  with  five  others  who  had  been 
admitted  by  Elizabeth  to  service  at  court,  bound  themselves  by 
an  oath  to  kill  the  queen  and  release  Mary.     They  were  in  corre- 
spondence with   many  others,  including  Mary  herself,  and  this 


362  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

correspondence  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  queen's  advisers.  With 
great  astuteness  and  the  use  of  rather  unscrupulous  means  Lord 
Burleigh  contrived  to  let  the  plotting  continue  but  to  have  all 
letters  pass  through  his  hands.  Finally  when  the  evidence  was 
complete  he  had  the  conspirators  arrested  and  executed,  together 
with  several  of  those  who  knew  of  their  project. 

326.  Trial  and  Execution  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  —  But  this 
time  the  matter  was  carried  farther.  Mary  herself  was  brought 
before  a  commission  made  up  of  most  of  the  nobles  of  England ; 
testimony  as  to  her  knowledge  and  encouragement  of  this  and  of 
other  plots  £or  the  assassination  of  the  queen  was  given  ;  and  she 
was  declared  by  the  commission  to  be  guilty  of  the  attempted 
murder  of  Elizabeth. 

Parliament  met  soon  afterwards  and  petitioned  Elizabeth  to  order 
Mary's  execution,  in  accordance  with  the  judgment  of  the  com- 
mission. Elizabeth  hesitated  long,  authorizing  and  then  recall- 
ing and  then  again 
half  consenting  to  the 
carrying  out  of  the 
warrant  of  execution, 
which  she  had  already 
brought  herself  to 

sign.     She  might  well 
The  Signature  of  Queen  Elizabeth 

hesitate  to  put  to 

death  her  cousin  and  rival.  A  woman,  a  relative,  a  queen  even 
after  nineteen  years  of  imprisonment,  a  guest,  —  Mary  had  personal 
claims  to  protection  which  made  the  necessity  for  her  execution 
at  best  a  hard  and  ungracious  one.  Yet  the  execution  was  a  state 
necessity.  Elizabeth  at  last  placed  the  warrant  in  the  hands  of 
Davison,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  state,  but  gave  him  only  an 
ambiguous  and  partial  permission  to  carry  it  out.  Finally  the 
queen's  council  took  on  themselves  the  responsibility,  and  in 
February,  1587,  Mary  was  beheaded  in  the  hall  of  the  castle  of 
Fotheringay. 


THE    REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  363 

The  pathos  of  Mary's  position,  the  scene  in  the  hall  of  execu- 
tion, her  dignity  on  the  scaffold,  the  lifting  of  the  gory  head  aloft 
as  it  fell  from  the  block,  with  the  usual  cry,  "  So  perish  all  ene- 
mies of  the  queen,"  made  a  dramatic  close  to  a  career  whose  sad- 
ness was  extreme,  whatever  side  may  be  taken  of  the  dispute 
which  has  ever  since  raged  around  Mary  Stuart.  When  the  exe- 
cution was  once  accomplished  Elizabeth  declared  loudly  that  she 
had  never  given  her  sanction  to  it,  and  that  her  councilors  had 
mistaken  her  intention.  To  prove  this  she  treated  her  whole 
council  with  extreme  severity  of  speech,  dismissed  Secretary 
Davison  from  her  service,  and  ordered  him  to  be  brought  to  trial. 
He  was  fined  heavily  and  ordered  into  imprisonment.  He  and 
his  family  were  ruined  to  give  the  queen  a  convenient  reply  to 
make  to  the  protests  of  France  and  Scotland. 

327.  War  with  Spain.  — The  long  imprisonment  of  the  Queen 
of  Scots,  while  it  had  brought  danger  upon  Elizabeth  by  encour- 
aging plots  for  her  release,  had  been  one  of  the  securities  against 
war  with  other  countries  by  postponing  the  question  of  the  suc- 
cession to  the  English  throne.  Now  the  war  with  Spain,  which 
had  been  so  often  threatened  and  which  had  been  avoided  only 
by  the  efforts  of  both  governments,  finally  broke  out.  It  had  long 
been  inevitable.  The  help  given  by  England  to  the  Netherlands 
rebels,  the  forcible  intrusion  of  English  merchants  into  the  West 
Indian  colonies,  the  attacks  of  Drake  on  the  Spanish  settlements 
in  America  and  Spanish  treasure  vessels  at  sea,  had  piled  up  an 
account  for  which  the  Spaniards  must  some  time  demand  settle- 
ment. The  religious  duty  to  depose  a  ruler  excommunicated  by 
the  pope,  when  added  to  the  other  incentives,  would  have  been 
quite  enough  to  lead  Philip  long  before  to  declare  war  against 
England  had  not  the  condition  of  the  Spanish  treasury,  the  dis- 
putes with  France,  and  the  trouble  in  the  Netherlands  made  war 
against  England  so  far  always  inopportune.  Now,  however,  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots  had  bequeathed. her  claim  to  the  English  throne 
to  Philip,  and  left  her  dying  injunction  upon  him  to  carry  out 


364  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  long- threatened  invasion.  The  vessels  and  troops  which  had 
been  collected  in  the  ports  of  Spain,  professedly  to  send  against 
the  Netherlands,  were  just  as  available  against  England,  and  their 
true  destination  was  no  longer  concealed.  Drake  took  time  by 
the  forelock  by  sailing  boldly  into  the  harbor  of  Cadiz,  destroying 
many  of  the  great  ships  of  war,  and  capturing  other  Spanish  ves- 
sels along  the  coast.  He  described  it  as  "  singeing  the  king  of 
Spain's  beard."  Queen  Elizabeth  had  consistently  avoided  open 
war,  however  much  she  had  allowed  help  to  be  given  to  the 
Netherlanders  and  given  her  tacit  consent  when  Drake  and  other 
sea  rovers  used  their  own  and  the  royal  ships  to  attack  the  Span- 
iards. Even  yet  she  tried  to  keep  the  peace,  which  had  lasted 
unbroken  for  almost  thirty  years,  but  war  was  no  longer  to  be 
avoided. 

328.  The  Spanish  Armada.  —  During  the  early  months  of  1588 
the  great  fleet  which  the  Spaniards  proudly  called  the  "  Invincible 
Armada "  was  at  last  made  ready  in  the  Spanish  harbors.  In 
July  it  appeared  in  the  English  Channel,  bound  for  the  coast  of 
Flanders,  where  it  was  to  receive  on  board  and  convoy  a  great 
Spanish  army  to  the  coast  of  England. 

Hurried  preparations  had  been  made  to  meet  the  invasion. 
The  English  militia  were  warned  to  gather  at  various  places  of 
rendezvous;  a  camp  was  formed  at  Tilbury  on  the  Thames  below 
London,  where  Elizabeth  visited  and  addressed  the  troops ;  bea- 
cons were  prepared  on  every  hilltop  along  the  southern  and  east- 
ern coasts ;  and  vessels  under  the  command  of  Howard,  Hawkins, 
Drake,  Frobisher,  and  other  famous  captains  were  gathered  in  vari- 
ous harbors  from  Plymouth  to  Dover.  In  addition  to  the  queen's 
ships,  volunteers  came  from  every  port.  The  freebooters  of  the 
Channel  now  found  congenial  occupation  and  half  justified  the 
existence  so  long  allowed  to  them.  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham, 
although  a  Roman  Catholic,  was  put  in  supreme  command  of  the 
fleet,  and  through  the  whole  country  the  Catholics  generally  put 
their  patriotism  above  their  religious  sympathies. 


«r»  /      f 

0       6Q      JOO     150      200     2r,0  *L©  •*/> 

scale  of  Knslish  Statute  Miles      ,f /'     ^^»   i;nff    ^\/I 

t?,'  /l^lr,  E«C^S1-^ 


365 


366  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

July  30, 1588,  the  great  galleons x  sailed  proudly  up  the  Channel 
in  a  long  line  before  a  southwest  wind.  The  fighting  soon  began. 
As  they  passed  one  of  the  Channel  ports  after  another  they  were 
attacked  in  the  rear  by  the  English  ships  issuing  from  their  har- 
bors and  taking  advantage  of  their  windward  position  to  attack 
the  Spaniards  at  their  leisure,2  and  a  running  fight  was  fought 
in  the  Channel.  The  advantages  of  number,  size,  and  equipment 
belonged  to  the  Spaniards.  The  English  vessels  on  the  other 
hand,  though  smaller,  were  built  on  a  model  that  made  them 
swifter  and  more  easily  handled  than  the  Spanish  galleons.  They 
hung,  therefore,  around  the  skirts  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  attacking  it 
only  as  they  had  favorable  opportunity,  avoiding  a  general  fight, 
and  merely  cutting  off  a  few  vessels  which  became  separated 
from  the  rest.  When,  however,  the  Spanish  fleet  had  reached 
the  narrowest  part  of  the  Channel,  just  between  Calais  and  Dover, 
a  more  vigorous  contest  took  place,  during  which  a  number  of 
the  badly  handled,  heavy  Spanish  vessels  were  sunk  or  driven 
ashore  on  the  shallow  coasts  of  France  and  Flanders.  The 
Armada  sailed  into  the  roads  of  Calais ;  but  the  wind  had  risen 
to  a  gale  and  no  safe  anchorage  could  be  found  there,  nor  could 
they  enter  the  difficult  harbors  of  Flanders.  So  in  a  few  days  the 
Spanish  fleet,  broken,  scattered,  and  deprived  of  its  best  com- 
manders and  pilots,  was  on  the  North  Sea  and  being  driven  far  to 
the  north  by  the  wind  behind  it.  One  part  of  the  English  fleet 
returned  to  the  Channel  to  guard  against  other  attacks,  while 
another  part  followed  the  great  Armada,  now  reduced  from  one 
hundred  and  fifty  sail  which  had  left  Spain  to  about  a  hundred  and 
twenty,  up  the  eastern  coast  of  England.  In  the  wild  storm  these 
determined  to  reach  Spain  again  by  a  desperate  voyage  around 
the  north  of  Scotland  and  Ireland.  There  were  sad  wrecks  along 

1  The  vSpanish  galleons  were  large  vessels  intended  primarily  for  the 
voyages  to  America.     They  were  built  so  as  to  be  available  either  for  war 
ships,  transport  vessels  for  troops,  or  freight  ships. 

2  See  Macaulay's  poem,  The  Armada. 


THE   REIGN   OF  ELIZABETH  367 

the  Western  Islands  and  the  coast  of  Ireland,  and  eventually  only 
one  third  of  the  fleet  and  much  less  than  one  third  of  its  force  of 
men  made  their  way  home  again.  The  running  fight  in  the  Chan- 
nel, the  wind  which  had  driven  the  vessels  into  the  North  Sea, 
and  the  watchfulness  and  perseverance  of  the  English  sailors  had 
made  the  attack  of  the  Armada  fruitless  and  saved  England  from 
one  of  the  most  serious  invasions  with  which  she  had  ever  been 
threatened. 

This  defense  was  followed  up  by  a  naval  attack  on  the  coast 
of  Spain  the  next  year,  under  the  leadership  of  Drake  and  Norris, 
in  which  some  towns  and  vessels  were  destroyed.  For  the  next 
ten  years  the  war  with  Spain  continued.  It  was  mostly  at  sea  and 
often  degenerated  into  mere  privateering  on  the  part  of  the  English. 
Her  sailors  were  almost  invariably  successful,  and  both  on  sea  and 
land  the  warlike  prestige  of  Spain  was  diminished. 

329.  The  Successful  Period  of  Elizabeth's  Reign. — The  last 
ten  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  were  its  period  of  greatest  glory 
and  success.     After  the  execution  of  Mary  and  the  defeat  of  the 
Armada  the  Catholic  party  had  no  possible  prospect  or  indeed 
desire  of  overthrowing  the  Protestant  settlement.     Their  highest 
hope  was  to  be  allowed  to  live  without  disturbance  of  their  religion 
and  under  only  moderate  political  disabilities.     The  danger  of 
invasion  from  abroad  and  of  an  overthrow  of  Elizabeth's  rule  was 
also  over.     Spain  was  not  strong  enough,  the  parties  in  France 
which  wished  to  live  at  peace  with  England  had  become  supreme, 
and,  above  all,  the  national  patriotic  spirit  of  the  English  people 
had  finally  overcome  all  other  sympathies  or  ambitions  of  any  class 
of  her  population.     There  was  never  any  time  after  the  crisis  of 
the  Armada  when  the  people  would  willingly  let  their  religious  or 
any  other  preferences  stand  in  the  way  of  their  interests  and 
feelings  as  Englishmen. 

330.  The  Elizabethan  Poor  Law.  —  Even  the  internal  social 
problems  were  gradually  brought  nearer  to  a  settlement.     The 
early  poor  laws,  it  is  true,  did  not  solve  the  problem.     In  the 


368  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

middle  of  Elizabeth's  reign  it  was  declared  that  "  all  the  parts  of 
the  realm  of  England  and  Wales  be  presently  with  rogues,  vaga- 
bonds, and  sturdy  beggars  exceedingly  pestered."  Vagabonds, 
wanderers,  and  those  who  in  modern  times  are  called  "  tramps," 
were  especially  objected  to  and  had  been  frequently  declared  pun- 
ishable by  law  unless  they  could  show  a  license  from  some  justice 
of  the  peace  allowing  them  to  travel  and  beg.  A  list  of  objection- 
able persons  given  in  one  of  the  laws  will  give  a  glimpse  of  the 
wandering  classes  of  society  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
The  wording  of  the  law  is  slightly  changed  for  purposes  of  clear- 
ness. "  All  idle  persons  using  subtle,  crafty,  and  unlawful  games 
or  plays  and  some  of  them  feigning  themselves  to  have  knowl- 
edge in  physiognomy  and  palmistry ;  all  persons  being  whole 
and  mighty  in  body  and  able  to  labor,  yet  not  using  any  lawful 
merchandise,  craft,  or  mistery;  all  fencers,  bearwards,  common 
players  in  interludes,  and  minstrells,  unless  they  belong  to  the 
company  of  some  baron  of  the  realm;  all  jugglers,  peddlers, 
trickers,  and  petty  chapmen ;  all  common  laborers  able  in  body 
loitering  and  refusing  to  work  for  reasonable  wages ;  all  scholars 
of  the  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  that  go  about  beg- 
ging, not  being  authorized  under  the  seal  of  those  universities ; 
all  shipmen  pretending  losses  by  sea;  and  all  prisoners  lately 
released  from  jail."  All  such  as  these  were  to  be  punished 
severely  if  they  continued  to  rove  through  the  country.  Accord- 
ing to  one  law  any  person  declared  to  be  a  vagabond  shall  be 
"  stripped  naked  from  the  middle  upward  and  shall  be  openly 
whipped  until  his  or  her  body  be  bloody."  According  to  another 
the  sturdy  beggar  was  to  be  "  grievously  whipped  and  burnt  through 
the  gristle  of  the  right  ear  with  a  hot  iron  of  the  compass  of  an 
inch  about." 

Houses  of  correction  were  to  be  built  in  which  those  who  were 
strong  in  body  but  unwilling  or  unable  to  find  occupation  were  to 
be  confined  and  made  to  work.  Taxes  were  imposed  and  volun- 
tary collections  made  to  obtain  money  to  buy  materials  and  put 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  369 

willing  laborers  to  work.  For  the  poor  who  could  not  work  alms- 
houses  were  built  in  addition  to  the  weekly  collections  taken  up 
to  support  them.  Finally  at  the  very  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign 
a  long  act  was  passed  combining  all  these  provisions  and  estab- 
lishing overseers  of  the  poor  in  each  parish.  These  should  regu- 
larly tax  for  the  support  of  the  poor  ail  people  of  any  means  and 
expend  for  the  poor  the  amounts  collected.  This  law  of  1601 
remained  the  established  poor  law  of  England  down  to  1834. 

331.  Increasing  Wealth  of  England.  —  If  there  were  still  many 
paupers  to  be  supported,  this  was  not  because  England  as  a  whole 
was  not  prosperous.     The  long  peace  at  home  and  abroad,  the 
improvements  in  agriculture,  the  increase  of  manufactures,  and 
the  spread  of  commerce  had  all  combined  to  raise  the  general 
level  of  prosperity,  comfort,  and  expenditure  and  to  make  a  much 
larger  class  of  rich  men  than  had  ever  existed  before  in  England. 
Among  the  lower  classes  and  the  farming  population  this  change 
showed  itself  principally  in  the  building  of  cottages  and  farm- 
houses in  which  there  were  chimneys  and  glass  windows,  in  the 
use  of  plates  and  spoons  of  pewter  instead  of  wood,  in  the  use  of 
mattresses  and  pillows  instead  of  straw  pallets  and  billets  of  wood, 
and  in  a  greater  variety  of  food.     Among  the  higher  classes  there 
was  larger  expenditure  in  all  forms  of  comfortable,  refined,  and 
even  luxurious  living.     With  the  breaking  down  of  old  mediaeval 
ways  and  a  greater  familiarity  with  other  countries  the  people 
took  a  new  and  stronger  enjoyment  in  all  the  pleasures  of  life. 

332 .  Dress  and  Eating.  —  Dress  was  much  more  showy,  expen- 
sive, and  fanciful  than  of  old.     Even  the  merchant  and  the  mer- 
chant's wife  wore  silk,  embroidery,  cloth  of  gold  and  silver,  and 
jewels  in  rings,  earrings,  necklaces,  bracelets,  and  sewed  on  their 
clothes.    Among  the  nobility  and  at  court  this  half -barbarous  excess 
of  personal  ornament  was  carried  to  great  lengths  and  brought  the 
English  into  some  ridicule  in  the  eyes  of  the  other  nations  of 
Europe.     The  Elizabethan  ruff  which  is  so  conspicuous  in  the 
portraits  of  the  time,  on  both  men  and  women,  is  a  good  instance 


3/0  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

of  the  showy  and  excessive  fashions.  Bombasted  trousers  for  men 
and  skirts  spread  widely  by  farthingales  for  women  were  charac- 
teristic of  the  time.  Queen  Elizabeth  herself  set  an  extravagant 
example  in  dress  and  personal  expenditures,  for  notwithstanding 
her  miserliness  in  many  directions  she  was  never  sparing  of 
money  for  her  own  adornment. 

The  Puritan  writers  of  the  time  were  never  weary  of  condemn- 
ing these  fashionable  excesses,  and  many  of  the  courtiers  impov- 
erished themselves  and  sacrificed  their  estates  in  their  efforts  to 
equal  in  dress  and  show  those  who  were  more  fortunate  in  obtain- 
ing lucrative  offices  or  royal  favors.  Men  of  good  family  and 
position  begged  for  the  most  petty  and  almost  menial  offices  con- 
nected with  the  court  for  the  sake  of  the  salaries  connected  with 
them,  small  as  these  often  were.  Long  waiting  sometimes  brought 
grants  of  offices  or  estates ;  more  often  it  brought  neither.  The 
poet  Spenser  describes  the  doubts  and  sorrows  of  the  courtier  as 
he  may  well  himself  have  experienced  them. 

Full  little  knowest  thou  that  hast  not  tride, 
What  hell  it  is  in  suing  long  to  bide  : 
To  lose  good  days,  that  might  be  better  spent ; 
To  waste  long  nights  in  pensive  discontent ; 
To  speed  to-day,  to  be  put  back  to-morrow; 
To  feed  on  hope,  to  pine  with  feare  and  sorrow; 
To  fret  thy  soul  with  crosses  and  with  cares ; 
To  eate  thy  heart  through  comfortlesse  dispaires ; 
To  fawne,  to  crouche,  to  waite,  to  ride,  to  ronne, 
To  spend,  to  give,  to  want,  to  be  undonne. 

In  eating  and  drinking  also  there  was  much  luxury  among  the 
wealthier  classes.  Wines  of  many  kinds  were  imported  and  came 
to  be  used  more  largely  than  beer,  which  was  the  national  beverage. 
Neither  coffee  nor  tea  was  yet  known  in  England,  but  tobacco  was 
introduced  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  1586  and  immediately  became 
popular  among  fashionable  people.  More  refined  manners  in 
eating  became  customary  among  persons  of  all  classes.  Knives 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH 


371 


and  plates  were  used  more  universally,  though  the  proverbial  state- 
ment that  "fingers  were  made  before  forks"  still  remained  true, 
the  use  of  those  implements  apparently  having  come  in  only 
some  years  after  Elizabeth's  death. 

333.  Building.  — The  most  conspicuous  change  in  the  method 
of  living  of  the  upper  classes,  however,  was  not  in  dress  nor  in 
food,  but  in  the  character  of  the  houses.  The  protection  against 
violence,  which  had  now  been  given  by  the  government  ever  since 


Lacock  Abbey  (a  country  house  constructed  from  an  old  monastery) 

the  time  of  Henry  VII,  made  it  possible  for  the  gentry  and 
nobility  to  build  their  dwellings  for  enjoyment  rather  than  for 
defense.  Moat,  wall,  and  lancet  window  now  gave  place  to  open 
garden  walks,  to  broad  entrances,  and  windows  through  which 
floods  of  sunshine  might  light  up  the  house.  Many  of  the  nobles 
and  gentry  had  been  enriched  by  the  lands  and  buildings  taken 
from  the  monasteries  ;  others  held  offices  which  brought  them  large 
incomes  ;  still  others  held  shares  in  the  trade  that  was  growing  up, 
or  profited  by  it  indirectly  through  the  increasing  value  of  their 


372  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

property.  There  was  also  an  enlightened  interest  in  architecture 
and  adornment  of  houses.  Under  these  circumstances  there  arose 
over  England  a  great  number  of  large,  beautiful,  and  tasteful  dwell- 
ings, many  of  which  still  remain  but  slightly  changed  from  the  con- 
dition in  which  they  were  completed  during  Queen  Elizabeth's 
reign.  Windows  in  these  were  as  numerous  as  they  had  been 
scarce  in  the  dark  mediaeval  castle,  their  walls  were  hung  with 
imported  tapestries  and  paintings,  and  they  were  surrounded  by 
artistically  laid  out  gardens  and  carefully  preserved  woods  and 
parks.  These  lordly  halls  and  manor  houses  were  copied  in  the 
form  of  more  modest  country  houses  of  every  size  and  grade  of 
luxury  and  comfort  down  to  the  mere  farmhouses  of  the  substan- 
tial farmer  or  sheep  raiser.  In  no  material  respect  was  there  a 
greater  break  with  the  past  than  in  the  dwellings  of  England. 

334.  Royal  Progresses.  —  Into  all  this  luxury  of  living  Queen 
Elizabeth  entered  heartily,  both  in  her  own  palaces  and  during  her 
" progresses."  These  "progresses"  were  series  of  visits  which 
she  made  from  time  to  time  from  one  country  house  to  another, 
or  from  one  town  to  another,  spending  sometimes  some  months  in 
this  way.  The  relief  from  the  living  expenses  of  herself  and  her 
court  when  she  was  thus  enjoying  the  hospitality  of  her  wealthy 
subjects  appealed  to  her  thrifty  instincts ;  she  took  sincere  pleasure 
in  the  festivities  that  accompanied  her  visits,  and  they  served  a 
useful  purpose  in  rousing  the  devotion  of  the  people  to  herself  and 
giving  opportunities  for  the  familiarity  and  courtesy  with  which 
she  so  well  knew  how  to  please  those  whom  she  wished  to  please. 
In  many  a  house  in  England  the  room  is  still  shown  where  "Good 
Queen  Bess"  slept.  When  the  queen  visited  a  nobleman's  or 
gentleman's  castle  or  manor  house  there  were  hunting  parties, 
feasting,  music,  and  revels.  When  she  paid  a  ceremonious  visit  to 
some  wealthy  town  there  was  again  feasting,  an  address  from  the 
mayor,  a  reply  from  the  queen,  pageants  representing  the  history 
of  the  city  or  her  majesty's  victories,  processions,  and  mimic  bat- 
tles. If  her  visit  were  to  one  of  the  universities  the  masters  and 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 


373 


fellows  of  the  college  greeted  her  with  Latin  addresses  and  poems 
and  the  students  with  Latin  plays  and  allegorical  shows,  the  queen 
replying  and  commenting,  praising  or  blaming,  in  the  same  clas- 
sical language  in  which  she  was  addressed,  her  Latin  and  even  her 
Greek  being  usually  ready  to  be  summoned  in  the  amount  neces- 
sary for  the  occasion. 

335.  The  Love  for  Shows. — Of  all  such  festivities  in  manor 
house,  town-hall,  college,  among  the  law  students,  or  in  the  open 


The  Long  Gallery  of  Haddon  Hall,  built  in  the  Time  of  Queen  Elizabeth 

air,  dramatic  shows  made  a  large  part.  Pageants  were  shown,  and 
masques,  interludes,  and  plays  were  written  to  be  played  before 
the  queen  by  poets  and  playwrights  of  every  grade  of  skill,  from 
the  crudest  to  some  of  the  most  perfect  in  literary  form  and  poetic 
gift.  One  of  the  great  marks  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth  was  its  love 
of  mimicry,  pageantry,  and  dramatic  representation  in  all  its  forms. 
The  news  of  any  event  of  national  interest,  the  visit  of  any  foreign 
prince  or  ambassador,  the  anniversary  of  the  queen's  birth  or 


374  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

coronation,  Christmas,  Easter,  or  Midsummer  Day  was  taken 
advantage  of  to  hold  revels,  to  arrange  tableaux,  or  to  prepare 
a  show  or  an  allegorical  play.  At  the  same  time  plays  in  which 
the  words  were  of  far  more  importance  than  their  accompani- 
ments were  being  written  and  represented.  Before  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth  closed,  the  drama  had  reached  a  perfection  and  a 
fertility  of  production  unexampled  before  or  since  in  English 
history. 

336.  Elizabethan  Literature. — This  dramatic  production  was, 
however,  only  one  part  of  the  whole  intellectual  and  literary  life 
of  the  time.  The  new  learning  of  the  time  of  Henry  VIII  had 
deepened  and  widened  during  the  time  of  Elizabeth  until  it  had 
become  a  whole  new  literature.  The  poetic  and  prose  writing 
in  the  latter  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign  was  not  only  much  larger 
in  amount  and  finer  in  quality  than  what  had  preceded  it,  but  it 
was  different  in  character.  It  was  all  quite  personal.  Men 
expressed  their  own  feelings,  thoughts,  and  experiences  in  their 
own  way.  They  were  no  longer  bound  by  conventional  expres- 
sions and  ideas.  Each  man  wrote  what  was  in  him ;  he  did  not 
merely  describe  general  moods  and  experiences.  The  subjective 
or  personal  nature  of  the  literature  of  this  time  is  well  described 
in  the  last  line  of  one  of  Sidney's  sonnets. 

"  Fool,"  said  my  muse  to  me,  "  look  in  thy  heart  and  write." 

It  was  a  time  when  there  was  much  study  of  the  classical 
authors.  Elizabeth  herself  and  many  of  the  nobility,  gentry,  and 
even  merchants  were  familiar  with  the  best  Greek  and  Latin 
authors.  Writers  and  readers  alike  were  more  or  less  imbued 
with  this  classical  learning.  But  the  principal  influence  which 
gave  form  to  the  literature  of  the  time  was  the  example  of  Italy. 
Petrarch  and  other  Italian  writers  were  known  and  studied,  and 
many  Englishmen  themselves  spent  much  time  in  Italy.  This  was 
true  of  Wyatt  and  Surrey,  the  earliest  poets  of  this  new  literary 
period,  who  indeed  had  both  died  before  Elizabeth's  accession. 


THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH  375 

337.  Sidney  and  Spenser.  —  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  one  of  the  most 
influential  writers  of  the  time,  was  also  a  man  of  classical  training, 
a  traveler  in  Italy,  and  familiar  with  its  literature.  Sidney  was  the 
son  of  one  of  Elizabeth's  most  trusted  ministers  and  courtiers,  and 
his  mother,  wife,  and  friends  were  all  of  the  influential  nobility 
that  gathered  about  Elizabeth's  court.'  He  volunteered  to  help  the 
Netherlanders  in  their  rebellion  against  the  Spanish  king,  and  died 
of  wounds  received  in  battle  there  in  1586,  when  he  was  scarcely 
more  than  thirty  years  of  age.  He  was  a  man  of  pure,  frank,  and 
generous  nature,  and  his  amiable  character,  his  romantic  life,  and 
the  generous  help  he  gave  to  literary  men  combined  with  his  own 
writings  in  prose  and  verse  to  make  him  one  of  the  best  known 
and  best  loved  men  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Edmund  Spenser  has  been  looked  up  to  as  a  model  since  the 
publication  in  1579  of  The  Shepherd's  Calendar,  his  first  poem. 
He  was  of  good  but  not  noble  family,  was  educated  at  Cambridge, 
and  afterwards  introduced  to  the  literary  and  political  society  of 
such  men  as  Sidney  at  London.  He  was  sent  to  Ireland  as  sec- 
retary of  the  lord  lieutenant  of  that  country,  and  obtained  a  grant 
of  land  there  which  kept  him  between  England  and  Ireland  till 
his  death  in  1599.  From  time  to  time  as  his  poems  were  issued, 
tljeir  grace,  their  beauty  of  form,  and  strength  of  thought  placed 
him  among  the  very  first  of  English  poets.  Far  the  best  known  of 
his  poems  is  the  long  poetic  allegory,  The  Faerie  Queene.  This  was 
published  between  1590  and  1596.  Besides  its  beauty  of  thought, 
fanciful  ingenuity  of  plan,  and  delicate  poetic  charm,  it  was  written 
in  a  new  and  specially  musical  form  of  verse,  which  has  always  since 
been  known  as  the  "  Spenserian  stanza."  Yet  running  through  the 
fancies  of  his  poetry  was  a  deep  interest  in  the  philosophical  and 
political  interests  of  his  time,  and  he  was  more  than  half  a  Puritan. 

338.  Prose  Writing. — The  variety  of  Elizabethan  literature  is 
quite  marvelous.  It  was  almost  equally  great  in  prose  and  verse. 
Hooker  wrote  a  philosophical  or  theological  work  reflecting  the 
same  moderate  religious  views  as  were  established  by  Elizabeth's 


3/6  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

compromise  in  the  church,  and  expressing  his  thoughts  with  a  grace- 
fulness and  dignity  which  have  given  his  Ecclesiastical  Polity  a  per- 
manent place  in  literature.  Camden,  an  historian  who  wrote  the 
annals  of  his  time  in  both  Latin  and  English,  was  the  best  of  a 
number  of  such  learned  antiquarian  writers.  Some  chronicles  were 
still  more  popular,  like  those  of  Holinshed,  which  recounted  the 
history  of  England,  or  like  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  which  described  the 
voyages  and  discoveries  of  English  seamen.  There  was  an  enor- 
mous production  of  pamphlets  on  all  subjects.  Pamphlets  took 
the  place  which  newspapers  take  with  us,  and  all  the  disputes  and 
discussions  of  the  time  were  represented  in  the  pamphlet  literature. 
Puritans  and  churchmen,  those  who  took  different  sides  on  ques- 
tions of  politics  or  of  literature,  those  who  had  personal  contro- 
versies, —  all  set  them  forth  in  pamphlets.  Many  also  were  written 
on  subjects  not  controversial,  simply  to  furnish  amusement  to  their 
readers  and  some  profit  to  their  writers. 

Francis  Bacon,  most  of  whose  life  and  writing  was  to  fall  in 
the  next  reign,  was  already  a  well-known  writer  and  courtier  under 
Queen  Elizabeth.  His  witty  and  wise  Essays  were  published  in 
1597.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  has  been  mentioned  among  the  explorers 
of  the  time,  and  might  as  properly  have  been  described  as  states- 
man, soldier,  or  writer,  for  he  was  equally  gifted  and  active  in  ajl 
these  directions.  His  writing  included  a  History  of  the  World 
and  several  descriptions  of  geographical  discovery  in  prose  and 
several  fine  songs  and  short  pieces  in  poetry.  Years  after,  there 
was  found  in  his  Bible  a  poem,  written  the  night  before  his  exe- 
cution, of  which  these  were  the  last  lines  : 

Even  such  is  time,  that  takes  in  trust, 
Our  youth,  our  joys,  our  all  we  have, 
And  pays  us  back  with  age  and  dust, 
Who  in  the  dark  and  silent  grave, 
When  we  have  wandered  all  our  ways, 
Shuts  up  the  story  of  our  days ; 
But  from  this  earth,  this  grave,  this  dust. 
My  God  shall  raise  me  up,  I  trust. 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH 


377 


Among  prose  writers  as  well  as  writers  of  song  and  drama,  Ben 
Jonson  represented  learned,  classical,  and  polished  production, 
and  exercised  a  strong  influence  over  all  the  other  writers  of  his 
time. 

339.   Shakespeare  and  the  Elizabethan  Drama.  —  But  Shakes- 
peare was  the  real  crown  of  the  age,  and  through  him  we  are 


as  the  most 
of  that  period, 
in  the  English 
the  queen  at 
progresses," 
players  and  by 


brought  back  to  the  Elizabethan  drama 
characteristic  form  of  the  great  literature 
Plays  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects,  both 
and  Latin  languages,  were  given  before 
her  own  court  and  while  she  was  on  her 
both  by  regularly  organized  companies  of 
amateur  bodies  of 
boys,  lawyers,  gen- 
tlemen, or  citizens. 
In  the  latter  part 
of  her  reign  three 
theaters  were  built 
in  London,  to  play 
at  which  stock 
companies  were 
formed.  They  also 
gave  plays  through- 
out the  country 
when  the  plague  or 
other  causes  had 
driven  polite 
society  away  from 
the  capital.  During  Elizabeth's  reign  and  the  succeeding  forty 
years  not  less  than  two  thousand  plays  were  produced,  many  of 
them  written  by  men  of  education,  of  some  position  in  society, 
and  familiar  with  the  old  dramas  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans. 
On  the  other  hand,  many  were  written  by  men  connected  with 
the  dramatic  companies  as  players  or  as  regular  writers. 


Burleigh  House 


378  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Of  the  latter  class  Shakespeare  was  the  great  type  and  the  great 
master.  Born  in  1564  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  he  came  to  London 
in  1585,  three  years  before  the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  and  con- 
nected himself  with  one  of  the  theaters  there.  His  plays  appeared 
from  time  to  time  during  the  last  ten  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign 
and  the  first  few  years  of  that  of  her  successor.  He  represented 
the  very  best  intellectual  gifts  characteristic  of  his  time,  as  welt  as 
an  unapproached  genius  all  his  own.  His  preeminence  among  the 
poets  of  his  own  time  and  of  all  time  was  recognized  then  as  it 
has  been  recognized  ever  since. 

The  subjects  chosen  by  writers  of  plays  varied  widely.  Many 
were  taken  from  romantic  stories  which  had  come  from  France 
or  Italy ;  many,  on  the  other  hand,  were  taken  from  the  history 
of  England  itself  and  of  its  national  heroes.  These  "  chronicle 
plays"  reflected  the  interest  which  the  English  people  felt  in 
their  own  past  and  their  pride  in  their  own  nationality.  Not 
infrequently  plays  were  written  and  performed  which  expressed 
the  contemporary  popular  feeling  of  opposition  to  the  Spaniards 
or  the  French  as  the  case  might  be.  The  foreign  adventure  and 
enterprise,  the  defiance  of  the  pope  and  of  the  Catholic  powers, 
and  the  universal  admiration  for  the  queen  were  all  represented 
on  the  popular  stage.  Nowhere  in  the  whole  action,  legislation, 
or  writing  of  the  time  does  the  national  patriotism  appear  more 
clearly  than  in  such  speeches  as  that  description  of  England 
which  Shakespeare  puts  into  the  mouth  of  old  John  of  Gaunt,  in 
the  play  of  Richard  II. 

This  royal  throne  of  kings,  this  scepter'd  isle, 
This  earth  of  majesty,  this  seat  of  Mars, 
This  other  Eden,  demi-paradise, 
This  fortress  built  by  Nature  for  herself 
Against  infection  and  the  hand  of  war, 
This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world, 
This  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 
Which  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a  wall, 
Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house, 


THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH  379 

Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands, 

This  blessed  plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  England. 

Or  where,  in  King  John,  Faulconbridge  cries, 

This  England  never  did,  nor  never  shall, 
Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  a  conqueror. 

The  Elizabethan  literature  survived  and  continued  in  most 
of  its  characteristics  long  after  the  time  of  the  great  queen. 
Shakespeare's  best  work  was  done  in  the  years  immediately  after 
her  death.  At  least  as  late  as  1640  the  influence  of  Jonson, 
Shakespeare,  and  Spenser  gave  form  and  character  to  the  drama 
and  other  poetry,  and  their  charm  and  manner  still  rested  strongly 
upon  Milton  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

340.  The  Close  of  the  Reign.  —  The  last  few  years  of  Elizabeth's 
life  were  to  her  bitter  ones,  while  England  as  a  whole  was  great 
a'nd  prosperous.  The  old  ministers  and  early  attendants  on  the 
queen  died  one  by  one  or  withdrew  from  court.  On  the  other 
hand,  at  no  time  was  the  court  more  brilliant.  Great  men  of  a  some- 
what younger  generation,  like  Raleigh,  Robert  Cecil,  and  Bacon, 
were  there.  Elizabeth  still  loved  flattery  and  played  the  coquette. 
She  was  especially  fond  of  having  handsome  young  men  always 
about  her.  The  principal  favorite  of  the  queen  in  these  late  days 
was  Robert  Devereux,  earl  of  Essex,  to  whom  she  intrusted  tasks 
far  beyond  his  abilities.  In  1599  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
troops  in  Ireland,  where  another  great  rebellion  of  the  native 
chiefs  had  broken  out.  Essex  mismanaged  the  campaign,  and 
then,  presuming  on  the  favor  of  the  queen,  disobeyed  orders  and 
came  back  to  England  without  leave. 

Elizabeth  seldom  allowed  her  personal  feelings  to  interfere  with 
her  public  duty,  so  Essex  was  deprived  of  his  military  command, 
of  all  his  offices  and  grants,  and  was  banished  from  court.  In  anger 
he  made  a  foolish  attempt  to  raise  a  rebellion  in  London,  where  he 
was  popular.  Although  he  declared  he  was  acting  only  against  the 
queen's  ministers,  not  against  the  queen  herself,  he  was  arrested, 


380 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


tried,  and  convicted  of  high  treason.  It  was  a  great  blow  to  the 
queen  to  be  compelled  by  her  duty  to  the  state  to  disregard  her 
fondness  for  Essex  and  to  sign  his  death  warrant. 

Feeling  herself  unblessed  by  personal  affection,  separated  by 
age  and  suspicion  from  those  immediately  around  her,  the  great 
queen  became  gloomy,  weak,  and  depressed.  Finally  in  March, 
1603,  she  died,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  her  age  and  in  the  forty- 
sixth  of  her  reign. 

341.  Summary  of  the  Period  of  Elizabeth With  all  the  weak- 
nesses and  contradictions  of  her  character,  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
piloted  the  ship  of  England's  fortunes  through  rocks  and  shoals 
into  comparatively  open  water.  At  the  beginning  of  her  reign 

the  country  was  in 
imminent  danger  of 
foreign  invasion 
and  of  civil  war, 
divided  and  unsettled 
in  religious  system, 
and  dependent  on 
other  countries  in 
foreign  policy.  By 
the  end  of  her  reign 
there  was  no  longer 
danger  of  invasion  from  abroad  or  of  rebellion  at  home.  England 
had  become  a  distinctly  Protestant  country  and  held  a  proud  and 
independent  position  among  the  nations  of  Europe.  Her  com- 
merce was  stretching  to  all  parts  of  the  earth,  the  foundations  of 
colonial  dominion  were  being  laid,  the  material  resources  of  the 
people  were  growing,  and  a  noble  body  of  literature  was  in  proc- 
ess of  formation.  During  all  this  progress  Elizabeth  had  been  the 
leader  and  representative  of  the  nation.  Much  of  the  material 
greatness  she  had  nothing  to  do  with;  much  of  the  success  of 
the  government  was  in  spite  of  her  actions  rather  than  a  result 
of  them.  Nevertheless  her  own  part  in  the  policy  of  the  government 


Effigy  of  Queen  Elizabeth  upon  her  Tomb 
in  Westminster  Abbey 


THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH  381 

had  been  justified  by  its  success.  Even  her  vacillation  and  pro- 
crastination had  in  some  cases  proved  to  be  the  best  policy,  for 
they  had  given  time  for  affairs  to  settle  themselves.  At  any  rate 
through  the  whole  tangled  web  of  the  history  of  almost  a  half  century 
ran  the  thread  of  Elizabeth's  strong  personality,  and  the  age  will 
always  be  known  by  her  name.  The  great  dramatist,  when  he 
could  look  back  on  her  reign  as  a  whole,  described  it,  in  the  play 
of  Henry  VIII,  in  the  form  of  a  prophecy  put  into  the  mouth 
of  Archbishop  Cranmer  speaking  at  her  christening. 

She  shall  be  loved,  and  fear'd ;  her  own  shall  bless  her: 

Her  foes  shake  like  a  field  of  beaten  corn, 

And  hang  their  heads  with  sorrow:  good  grows  with  her: 

In  her  days  every  man  shall  eat  in  safety, 

Under  his  own  vine,  what  he  plants ;  and  sing 

The  merry  songs  of  peace  to  all  his  neighbours ; 

God  shall  be  truly  known ;  and  those  about  her 

From  her  shall  read  the  perfect  ways  of  honour, 

And  by  those  claim  their  greatness,  not  by  blood. 

And  still  later,  Lord  Brooke,  a  lifelong  courtier  of  Elizabeth,  still 
spoke  of  her  as  "  my  incomparable  queen." 

General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  vii,  sects.  3-8.  FROUDE, 
History  of  England,  Vols.  VII-XII.  This  portion  of  Froude's  great  work  is 
more  moderate  and  trustworthy  than  the  earlier  portion.  CREIGHTON,  The 
Age  of  Elizabeth  (Epochs  of  History),  and  BEESLEY,  Elizabeth  (Twelve 
English  Statesmen),  can  be  well  combined  to  give  the  personal  and  the 
general  history  of  the  reign.  CREIGHTON,  Queen  Elizabeth,  is  a  hand- 
somely illustrated  work,  which  is  also  published  without  the  illustrations 
and  at  a  lower  price.  Several  of  the  great  questions  of  the  time  are  admirably 
explained  in  the  Preface  to  PROTHERO,  Select  Statutes  and  Other  Constitu- 
tional Documents.  Five  works  by  MARTIN  A.  S.  HUME  are  of  much  interest, 
The  Courtships  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  The  Year  after  the  Armada,  Philip  II 
of  Spain,  The  Great  Lord  Burghley,  and  Treason  and  Plot.  For  Scotland 
at  this  time  the  best  books  are  HUME  BROWN,  History  of  Scotland,  Vol.  II, 
and  LANG,  Mystery  of  Mary  Stuart.  For  the  literature  of  the  time  the  best 
short  works  are  SAINTSBURY,  Elizabethan  Literature,  and  SCHELLING,  The 
English  Chronicle  Play.  The  relations  with  the  Netherlands  are  explained 
in  Miss  PUTNAM,  William  the  Silent  (Heroes  of  the  Nations). 


382  A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  most  important  constitutional  documents 
are  given  in  PROTHERO,  Select  Statutes  and  Other  Constitutional  Documents. 
HARRISON,  Elizabethan  England  (Camelot  series),  is  a  general  description 
of  the  country  at  that  time.  The  contemporary  records  concerning  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots  are  collected  in  RAIT,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  1542-1587 
(Scottish  History  by  Contemporary  Writers).  Interesting  personal  descrip- 
tions of  Elizabeth  are  in  extracts  from  the  Memoirs  of  Melville  in  KENDALL, 
Source-Book,  No.  53.  No.  56  in  the  same  is  a  series  of  letters  about  the 
Armada.  Speeches  of  Elizabeth  before  parliament  and  the  army  are  given 
in  the  same,  No.  54,  in  LEE,  Source-Book,  No.  141,  in  COLBY,  Selections 
from  the  Sources,  No.  61,  and  in  GALTON,  English  Prose  (Camelot  series), 
pp.  26-29.  HAKLUYT,  Principal  Navigations,  is  the  great  collection  of  nar- 
ratives of  explorers  and  adventurers.  A  selection  from  these  is  given  in 
more  accessible  form  in  PAYNE,  Voyages  of  Elizabethan  Seamen,  and  a  series 
of  extracts  in  LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  144-147. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  MACAULAY,  The  Armada.  SCHILLER,  Maria 
Stuart.  TENNYSON,  The  Revenge:  a  Ballad  of  the  Fleet.  Many  of  the 
dramas  of  the  time,  as  JONSON,  The  Alchemist,  Every  Man  in  his  Humor, 
and  Eastward  Ho,  throw  light  on  the  customs  of  the  time.  SCOTT,  Kenil- 
ivorth.  KINGSLEY,  Westward  Ho.  Miss  YONGE,  Unknown  to  History. 
FLETCHER,  In  the  Days  of  Drake. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Death  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  KENDALL,  Source- 
Book,  No.  58 ;  (2)  The  Defeat  of  the  Armada,  FROUDE,  History  of  England, 
Vol.  XII,  chap,  xxxvi;  (3)  The  Voyage  of  Drake  around  the  World, 
PAYNE,  Narrative  of  Francis  Pretty,  Voyages  of  Elizabethan  Seamen,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  196-230;  (4)  Gilbert's  Voyage  to  Newfoundland  in  1853,  ibid.,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  1-50 ;  (5)  Ireland  in  the  Time  of  the  Tudors,  TRAILL,  Social  England, 
Vol.  Ill,  pp.  293-302, 409-411 ;  (6)  Witchcraft  and  Alchemy,  ibid.,  pp.  325- 
331 ;  (7)  Dress  and  Manners,  ibid.,  pp.  383-390  ;  (8)  Religious  Parties,  ibid., 
pp.  424-431;  (9)  Exploration  and  Travel,  ibid.,  pp.  477-494;  (10)  Classes 
of  Society  in  England,  HARRISON,  Elizabethan  England,  chap,  i  (Camelot 
series);  (n)  Changes  in  Houses  in  Elizabeth's  Time,  ibid.,  chap.  ix. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE  PERSONAL  MONARCHY  OF  THE  EARLY  STUARTS 
1603-1640 

342 .  James  I.  —  Elizabeth  had  refused  to  acknowledge  any 
one  as  her  successor,  even  after  it  became  evident  that  she  would 
have  no  children  of  her  own.  If  the  will  of  Henry  VIII,  under 
which  she,  as  well  as  Edward  and  Mary,  had  inherited  the  throne, 
was  to  be  followed,  a  certain  English  nobleman,  son  of  the  sister 
of  Lady  Jane  Grey  and  great-grandson  of  Mary,  the  younger 
sister  of  Henry  VIII,  would  become  king.  But  James  Stuart, 
son  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  great-grandson  of  Margaret,  the 
elder  sister  of  Henry  VIII,  was  a  far  more  suitable  candidate.1  He 
had  now  been  king  of  Scotland  for  many  years,  was  equally  near 
to  Elizabeth  in  blood,  and  seemed  to  be  indicated  for  the  throne 
both  by  his  position  and  by  the  preference  of  the  queen,  which 
she  at  last  expressed  a  few  days  before  her  death.  He  was  accord- 
ingly proclaimed  king  by  general  agreement  immediately  after 
Elizabeth's  death.  His  title  had  been  until  this  time  James  VI 
of  Scotland ;  he  became  now,  in  addition,  Jatties  I  of  England. 

1  The  line  of  descent  was  as  follows  : 


Henry  VII,  1485-1509 

Margaret 

Henry  VIII,  1509-1547 

Mary 

James  V            | 
of  Scotland     Mary 

Mary 
Queen  of  Scots 

James  VI 
of  Scotland 

Elizabeth 
1558-1603 

Edward          Grey 

'547-553    Catherine 
Grey 

Lord 
Beauchamp 

383 


A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


A  new  line  was  thus  established  on  the  throne  of  England,  —  the 
House  of  Stuart.1 

It  was  a  line  of  kings  with  well-marked  characteristics  and  fill- 
ing a  very  distinct  period.  They  continued  the  system  of  strong 
government  of  the  Tudors  and  carried  it  to  still  greater  complete- 
ness. In  England,  as  in  the  other  countries  of  Europe,  it  was  a 
period  of  growing  despotism,  when  the  kings  were  determined  to 
have  their  own  way,  whatever  their  subjects  might  think  of  it. 
The  Stuart  dynasty  as  a  whole,  therefore,  has  left  the  reputation 
of  being  the  most  autocratic  and  tyrannical  in  English  history. 

343.  Character  of  the  New  King. — James  was  well  educated, 
widely  read,  and  in  matters  that  did  not  concern  his  own  personal 
interests  and  feelings  broad-minded  and  good-natured.  He  dis- 
liked the  extreme  views  of  the  Puritans,  and  he  had  already 
learned  in  Scotland  that  their  principles  would  carry  the  control 
of  church  affairs  out  of  his  hands  entirely.  All  his  sympathies 
and  preferences,  therefore,  were  for  the  established  church  as 
he  found  it  when  he  came  to  England.  He  was  even  liberally 
inclined  towards  the  Roman  Catholics.  On  political  questions,  no 
king  that  ever  reigned  in  England  had  higher  views  of  his  powers, 
authority,  and  responsibilities  than  James.  He  felt  that  he  had 
been  set  by  God  to  the  work  of  ruling  the  country,  and  that  this 

1  The  members  of  this  family  were  the  following. 
James  I,  1603,  1625 


Prince  Henry 
died  1612 

Charles  I, 

1625-1649 

Elizabeth 
married  the  elector 
of  the  Palatinate 
in  Germany 

Charles  II,  1660-1685 

James  II,  1685-1688 

1 
James 

Mary 
1688-1694 
married  William  III 
1688-1702 

Anne 
1702-1714 

PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      385 


was  his  business,  just  as  it  was  the  business  of  a  clergyman  to  give 
religious  teaching,  of  a  lawyer  or  teacher  to  fulfill  his  professional 
duties,  or  of  a  farmer  or  merchant  to  carry  on  his  occupation. 
The  physical  personality  of  King  James  was  scarcely  fitted  to  his 
high  conceptions  of  royalty.  He  was  not  naturally  dignified  or 
impressive,  as  Henry  VIII  and  Elizabeth  had  been.  He  had  a 
strong  Scotch  accent,  his  enunciation  was  indistinct,  and  his  gait 
was  somewhat  shambling.  These  physical  deficiencies  were,  how- 
ever, of  small  importance  compared  with  his  mental  characteristics. 
He  had  none  of  that  instinctive 
capacity  to  know  and  conform 
to  what  the  great  mass  of  his 
subjects  wanted  which  had 
been  the  most  valuable  trait 
of  the  Tudor  sovereigns.  He 
was  so  sure  he  was  right  that 
he  never  tried  to  understand 
what  others  meant.  He  was 
so  vain  that  he  could  not  recog- 
nize or  appreciate  great  ability 
in  others,  and  therefore 
selected  his  ministers  un- 
wisely. To  the  difficult  work 
of  solving  the  pressing  political 
and  religious  problems  that 
are  now  to  be  described,  James's  abilities  were  poorly  adapted. 
344.  The  Established  Church. — The  greatest  question  of  the 
sixteenth  century  had  been  as  to  whether  England  should  be 
Catholic  or  Protestant.  That  had  now  been  settled ;  and  as  a 
nation  she  had  separated  herself  forever  from  the  Roman  Catholic 
church.  But  whether  England  was  to  be  Anglican  J  or  Puritan  was 
still  an  unsettled  question. 

1  The  established  church  from  the  time  of  Elizabeth  onward  is  known 
as  the  "Anglican  church,"  and  its  government  and  belief  as  "Anglicanism." 


James  I 


386  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  religious  system  which  had  been  established  by  Elizabeth 
and  her  ministers  and  enforced  through  the  whole  of  her  long 
reign  was  a  moderate,  enlightened,  and  orderly  organization  of 
religious  worship,  and  a  great  part  of  the  people  had  not  only 
accepted  but  grown  to  love  its  arrangements.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  men  found  in  the  forms  of  this  official  organization  of  the 
church  room  for  earnest  piety  and  religious  devotion.  Although 
it  had  been  imposed  upon  the  people,  not  chosen  by  them,  a 
very  large  number  of  Englishmen,  perhaps  a  majority  of  them, 
were  quite  satisfied  with  it. 

345.  Puritanism.  —  Nevertheless  the  Puritans  had  been  grow- 
ing steadily  in  numbers.     Many  of  those  who  held  their  religious 
views  most  strongly  were,  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  James  I, 
entirely  dissatisfied  with  the  condition  of  the  established  church. 
They  wished  simplification  of  its  ceremonies,  abolition  of  its  organ- 
ization under   archbishops  and  bishops,  greater  strictness  of  its 
moral  rules,  and  a  change  of  some  of  its  religious  beliefs.    The 
great  religious  struggle  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  between 
these  two  parties.     On  the  one  side  was  Anglicanism,  supported 
by  the  king  and  by  all  the  organized  powers  of  church  and  state, 
and  giving  satisfaction  to  a  great  many  people,  especially  to  the 
higher  classes.     On  the  other  side  was  a  great  mass  of  the  most 
deeply  religious  men  of  the  time,  particularly  to  be  found  in  the 
ranks  of   the  ordinary  clergymen  of    the    parishes   and   among 
the  middle  classes  of  the  people.     The  contest  between  Puri- 
tanism and  Anglicanism  took  the  place  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury of  the  contest  between  Catholicism  and  Protestantism  in 
the  sixteenth. 

346.  The  Royalist  Ideal  of  Government.  —  Along  with  this  reli- 
gious conflict  a  great  political  conflict  was  arising,  —  a  conflict 
between  the  unrestricted  power  of  the  king  on  the  one  hand  and 
the  equal  or  even  superior  powers  of  the  people  represented  by 
parliament  on  the  other.     The  form  of  government  which  had 
grown  up  in  the  last  century  and  a  half  had  been  one  in  which  the 


rul< 


PERSONAL  MONARCHY   OF  THE   STUARTS    387 


ruler  exercised  very  great  powers.  The  various  ministers  and  offi- 
cials were  the  submissive  and  obedient  instruments  of  the  king  or 
queen.  Parliament  was  generally  quite  willing  to  allow  the  sov- 
ereign to  exercise  his  or  her  own  judgment  in  most  of  the  points 
of  government.  In  foreign  affairs,  in  keeping  order  in  the  country, 
in  regulating  matters  of  the  church,  and  in  carrying  on  all  the  usual 
duties  of  executive  government  the  king,  directly  or  through  his 
council  and  through  the  various  grades  of  officials,  exercised  an 
almost  unrestricted  power  and  authority.  This  had  come  to  be 
the  accepted  official  view  of  the  organization  and  powers  of  gov- 
ernment. Such  powers  had  always  been  used  in  greater  or  less 
degree  by  the  kings,  but  the  rulers  of  the  Tudor  line  during  the 
sixteenth  century  had  exercised  them  in  an  especially  high  degree. 
They  were  limited  in  their  action  only  by  the  old  established  laws 
of  the  country,  by  the  restrictions  of  the  Great  Charter,  and  by 
such  new  laws  as  parliament  might  induce  them  to  accept. 

347.  The  Resistance  of  Parliament.  —  On  the  other  hand,  there 
had  long  been  signs  of  growing  opposition  to  this  plan  of  govern- 
ment. Over  and  over  again  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  parlia- 
ment had  tried  to  force  its  views  upon  her.  It  had  petitioned 
her  to  marry  and  in  the  meantime  to  name  her  successor ;  it  had 
pressed  her  to  sign  the  death  warrant  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots ; 
it  had  tried  to  introduce  reforms  of  a  Puritan  nature  into  the 
church ;  and  just  at  the  close  of  the  reign  a  long  debate  was  held 
in  which  the  grant  of  patents  or  monopolies  by  the  queen  was 
severely  criticised.  Besides  this,  parliament  had  shown  an  increas- 
ing sense  of  its  own  importance  by  claiming  the  right  to  freedom 
of  debate,  freedom  of  its  members  from  arrest,  and  to  judge  of 
the  election  of  its  own  members.  Queen  Elizabeth,  notwithstand- 
ing this  growing  self-assertion  of  parliament,  had  been  able  by  a 
mixture  of  authority  and  conciliation  to  retain  her  entire  control 
over  the  government.  Her  popularity,  her  age,  her  sex,  the 
dangers  of  the  time,  had  all  combined  to  prevent  any  conflict 
between  her  and  parliament.  Now,  however,  all  these  restraints 


388  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

were  removed  and  two  different  ideals  of  government  proved  to  be 
in  antagonism  to  each  other  just  as  clearly  as  were  the  two  dif- 
ferent ideals  of  the  church.  The  great  struggle  of  the  seventeenth 
century  was  therefore  political  as  well  as  religious. 

In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  parliament  had  exer- 
cised much  more  control  over  the  actions  of  government  than 
during  Tudor  times.  It  was  quite  possible  for  its  members  and 
the  voters  who  elected  them  to  feel  and  claim  that  its  old  acknowl- 
edged powers  were  really  greater  than  those  which  had  been 
recently  conceded  to  it.  Lawyers  who  were  familiar  with  the 
constitutional  history  of  their  country,  Puritans  who  were  dissatis- 
fied with  the  established  church,  lovers  of  good  government  who 
saw  the  administration  being  carried  on  unwisely  and  unsuccess- 
fully, might  readily  make  up  a  parliamentary  party  who  would 
insist  on  having  more  to  do  with  government  than  Henry  VIII 
or  Elizabeth  had  allowed,  and  they  could  refer  back  to  ancient 
precedent  for  their  claims.  This  was  more  likely  to  happen 
because  times  were  changing  and  for  some  reason  men's  ambi- 
tions ran  more  in  political  lines  than  they  had  done  for  the  last 
century.  Parliament,  which  under  the  Tudors  had  been  submis- 
sive or  easily  browbeaten,  under  the  Stuarts  was  aggressive,  fault- 
finding, and  obstinate. 

The  views  of  parliament  held  by  James  did  not  allow  to  it 
much  power.  He  thought  parliament  ought  to  give  him  infor- 
mation and  advice  and  provide  him  with  funds  to  carry  on  the 
government,  but  that  it  ought  not  to  interfere  with  the  way  in  which 
he  carried  it  on.  He  was  not  responsible,  in  his  opinion,  either  to 
parliament  or  to  the  people ;  he  was  responsible  to  God  alone. 
This  view  of  government  came  afterwards  to  be  described  as  the 
belief  in  the  "divine  right  of  kings,"  and,  although  that  term  was 
not  yet  used,  the  doctrine  was  believed  in  by  a  great  many  writers, 
clergymen,  and  statesmen,  as  well  as  the  king.  Under  these  con- 
ditions it  is  no  wonder  that  the  reign  of  James  came  soon  to  be 
marked  by  much  dispute  on  both  religious  and  political  matters. 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      389 

348.  The  Hampton  Court  Conference.  —  The  Puritans  hoped 
that  a  king  who  had  ruled  over  a  country  where  religion  was  so 
strongly  Protestant  as  in  Scotland  would  be  willing  to  introduce 
some  further  reforms  in  the  church  of  England.  A  great  petition 
for  changes  in  the  church  was  therefore  prepared  and  presented 
to  him.  It  was  planned  that  it  should  be  signed  by  a  thou- 
sand clergymen  and  was  therefore  spoken  of  as  the  "  Millenary 
Petition."  Instead  of  either  granting  or  refusing  its  requests, 
James  arranged  a  debate  between  some  of  the  leading  bishops 
and  others  who  did  not  wish  any  change  to  be  introduced  in 
the  established  church,  and  some  prominent  clergymen  of  Puritan 
tendencies.  This  conference  was  held  before  the  king  himself 
at  his  palace  of  Hampton  Court.  During  parts  of  several  days 
the  discussions  on  the  points  in  dispute  proceeded  between  the 
two  parties,  the  king  occasionally  participating. 

At  last,  when  one  of  the  Puritan  clergymen  proposed  that  certain 
disputed  points  should  be  referred  in  each  case  to  the  bishop  and 
his  "  presbyters,"  or  parish  clergymen  or  elders,  the  king,  who  had 
had  many  conflicts  in  Scotland  with  the  presbyteries  or  associa- 
tions of  ministers,  fired  up  and  declared  to  the  Puritan  leaders 
that  they  were  aiming  "  at  a  Scotch  presbytery,  which  agreeth  as 
well  with  a  monarchy  'as  God  and  the  Devil.  Then  Jack  and 
Tom  and  Will  and  Dick  shall  meet  and  at  their  pleasure  censure 
me  and  my  Council  and  all  our  proceedings.  .  .  .  Stay,  I  pray  you, 
for  one  seven  years  before  you  demand  that  from  me,  and  if  then 
you  find  me  pursy  and  fat,  and  my  windpipes  stuffed,  I  will  per- 
haps hearken  to  you ;  for  let  that  government  be  once  up,  I  am 
sure  I  shall  be  kept  in  breath ;  then  shall  we  all  of  us  have  work 
enough  and  both  our  hands  full.  But,  Dr.  Reynolds,  until  you  find 
that  I  grow  lazy,  let  that  alone."  He  then  left  the  room,  declaring, 
"  If  this  be  all  that  they  have  to  say,  I  shall  make  them  conform 
themselves,  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the  land,  or  else  the  worse." 

One  of  the  members  of  the  king's  council  who  was  present 
exclaimed,  "  His  Majesty  spoke  by  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  of 


390  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

God,"  and  others  expressed  their  approval  of  his  opposition  to  the 
Puritans.  In  fact,  neither  James  nor  his  principal  advisers  had 
much  sympathy  with  or  understanding  of  the  desires  of  the  Puri- 
tan clergymen  and  of  those  who  agreed  with  them.  They  thought 
that  these  were  making  much  of  trifles  and  acting  from  the  mere 
love  of  contention.  During  the  whole  of  James's  reign  he  was 
trying,  as  he  said,  to  "make  them  conform  themselves,"  and 
since  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  people  were  Puritans  he  was 
in  constant  conflict  with  this  class  of  his  subjects.  The  first 
serious  contest  came  early.  In  1604  a  new  set  of  canons,  or 
church  laws  and  rules,  was  drawn  up  by  convocation.1  These 
canons  required  that  every  Englishman  should  acknowledge  the 
prayer  book  as  being  in  accordance  in  every  respect  with  the 
word  of  God.  An  oath  to  this  effect  was  ordered  to  be  taken 
by  every  clergyman,  and  those  who  refused  were  to  be  expelled 
from  their  positions.  Some  three  hundred  who  refused  to  comply 
were  thus  deprived  of  their  benefices.  In  many  other  ways  the 
king  was  thus  at  cross-purposes  with  the  Puritan  part  of  his 
subjects. 

349 .  The  New  Version  of  the  Scriptures.  —  One  recommenda- 
tion of  the  Puritan  clergy  made  at  the  Hampton  Court  'Confer- 
ence commended  itself  to  James  and  was"  carried  out  within  the 
next  few  years.  This  was  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible.  In  the 
course  of  that  discussion  several  of  the  speakers  pointed  out  that 
the  familiar  translation  did  not  truly  represent  the  original.  James 
was  himself  a  man  of  learning  and  fully  appreciated  this  fact. 
There  were  many  clergymen  learned  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  in 
England,  and  James  asked  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  obtain 
advice  from  the  universities  and  draw  up  a  list  of  men  competent 
to  make  a  new  translation.  Fifty-four  were  selected  and  divided 
into  six  groups,  one  portion  of  the  Bible  being  given  to  each 
group  to  be  translated.  After  three  years  of  labor  the  results 

1  Convocation  was  the  assembly  of  the  higher  clergy  and  of  representa- 
tives of  the  lower  clergy  in  each  archbishopric. 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      391 

were  carefully  gone  over  and  considered  by  all  together  and  the 
new  translation  thus  agreed  upon  was  published  in  1 6 1 1 . 

The  translators  applied  not  only  learning  but  skill  and  judg- 
ment to  their  task.  They  changed  the  earlier  translations  no 
more  than  necessary,  and  frequently  followed  the  order  and  form 
of  the  original  language.  Nevertheless  they  had  a  complete 
mastery  of  the  English  language  and  used  it  in  their  translation 
with  a  simplicity,  dignity,  and  harmony  which  have  never  been 
excelled.  Use  and  time  have  made  the  forms  of  expression  used 
in  this  translation  of  the  Bible  familiar,  and  they  have  never  ceased 
to  exercise  a  deep  influence  on  English  thought,  writing,  and 
speech.  The  large  proportion  of  words  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin 
used  by  the  translators  is  noticeable.  The  first  thirty-five  words 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer  are  all  old  English  words,  and  on  the  average, 
through  the  whole  Bible,  ninety  out  of  every  hundred  words  are 
Anglo-Saxon  ;  while  Shakespeare  uses  only  eighty-five  Anglo-Saxon 
words  out  of  every  hundred,  and  the  historian  Gibbon  only  seventy 
out  of  every  hundred. 

James  took  a  great  interest  in  this  work  and  was  quite  willing 
to  allow  the  learned  Puritan  clergy  to  help  in  it,  even  though  he 
did  not  propose  to  let  them  make  any  changes  in  the  established 
church. 

350.  The  Gunpowder  Plot. — The  Roman  Catholics,  like  the 
Puritans,  at  first  hoped  that  James  would  give  them  greater  liber- 
ties than  Elizabeth  had  done.  His  mother  had  been  a  Roman 
Catholic,  his  wife  was  secretly  a  member  of  the  same  church,  and 
he  was  known  himself  not  to  favor  the  persecution  of  Catholics. 
They  might  very  fairly  anticipate  an  improvement  in  their  posi- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact  the  king  did  show  great  leniency  in 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws  against  Roman  Catholics.  Never- 
theless, as  the  feeling  among  the  people  was  very  bitter  against 
them,  soon  after  his  accession  James  permitted  the  passage  of 
more  severe  recusancy  laws,  and  when  it  suited  his  policy  he 
allowed  these  laws  to  be  put  in  force  against  them.  All  priests 


392  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

were  banished  from  the  country  and  Catholic  laymen  who  would 
not  come  to  the  services  of  the  established  church  continued  to 
be  heavily  fined. 

As  the  Catholics  continued  to  suffer  under  the  persecutions, 
some  of  the  more  violent  of  them,  in  1604,  formed  an  atrocious 
plot  according  to  which  the  king,  ministers,  and  members  of 
parliament  were  all  to  be  killed  at  one  time  and  a  Catholic  gov- 
ernment set  up.  For  this  purpose  the  group  of  men  who  were 
engaged  in  the  plot  hired  a  house  adjoining  the  building  where 
parliament  was  to  meet.  They  dug  a  passage  from  its  cellar 
through  the  wall  into  a  cellar  under  the  parliament  house  and 
stored  in  this  a  number  of  barrels  of  gunpowder.  It  was  planned 
to  apply  a  match  to  this  on  the  day  of  the  opening  of  parliament 
and  thus  cause  an  explosion  which  would  destroy  all  those  con- 
nected with  the  existing  government  and  give  an  opportunity  for 
the  Catholics  to  seize  power. 

One  of  the  thirteen  conspirators,  a  gentleman  named  Guy 
Fawkes,  was  appointed  to  watch  over  the  powder.  Parliament 
was  to  meet  on  the  5th  of  November.  A  few  days  before  this 
date  one  of  the  Roman  Catholic  peers  received  a  mysterious  letter 
warning  him  not  to  attend  parliament.  It  had  been  sent  secretly 
by  one  of  the  conspirators,  who  could  not  bear  to  see  a  relative 
and  fellow  Catholic  run  the  risk  of  being  killed  in  the  explosion. 
This  nobleman  took  the  letter  of  warning  to  the  earl  of  Salisbury, 
James's  principal  minister,  who  showed  it  to  the  king.  They  were 
led  by  some  of  its  expressions  to  suspect  the  plan  of  blowing  up 
the  parliament  house.  They  searched  the  cellars,  found  the  barrels 
of  powder,  and  captured  Guy  Fawkes.  The  whole  plot  therefore 
failed,  its  leaders  were  captured,  and  they  and  several  others  who 
were  believed  to  have  known  of  it  were  executed,  or  killed  in 
encounters  with  the  sheriff  who  was  sent  to  capture  them.  The 
immediate  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  the  plot  was  the  passing 
of  more  severe  laws  against  the  Catholics.  The  5th  of  November 
has  always  since  been  commemorated  in  England  as  "  Guy  Fawkes 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS 


393 


Day,"  one  of  the  most  usual  incidents  of  its  celebration  being  the 
hanging  of  Guy  Fawkes  in  effigy. 

351.  The  Proposed  Union  of  the  Two  Kingdoms James  was 

unsuccessful  in  a  project  in  which  he  was  much  interested  for 
breaking  down  the  separation  of  Scotland  from  England.     The 
English  and  the  Scots  had  been  hereditary  enemies.     Not  only  in 
constant  border  hostilities,  but  in  frequent  wars  they  had  been 
pitted  against  each  other  from  time  immemorial.     Now  England 
and  Scotland  had  the  same  king,  and  there  seemed  no  reason  for 
a  continuance  of  such  enmity.     James  was  extremely  anxious  to 
draw  the  two  countries  nearer  to  each  other.     He  wished  to  have 
the   same   system  of  law,   the  same  church 

arrangements,  the  same  property  and  trading 
privileges  in  the  two  countries.  He  tried 
to  induce  parliament  to  pass  an  act  of  union 
to  bring  about  these  ends.  But  parliament 
and  the  English  people  generally  still  felt  all 
the  old  antagonism  and  were  quite  unwilling 
to  go  so  far  as  the  king  proposed.  Although 
commissioners  were  appointed  from  the 
Scotch  parliament  and  from  the  English  par- 
liament, who  discussed  the  plan  for  some 
years,  very  little  was  accomplished.  Such  laws  in  each  country 
as  involved  actual  hostility  to  the  other  were  repealed,  and  the 
judges  decided  that  post  nati,  that  is,  children  born  in  either  king- 
dom after  the  king's  accession  to  the  throne  of  England,  were  to 
be  considered  subjects  of  both  kingdoms.  Apart  from  this  the 
two  countries  still  remained  separate,  with  the  king  as  the  one 
bond  of  union. 

352.  Foreign  Affairs.  —  In   foreign   affairs  James  insisted  on 
going  his  own  way.     Soon  after  his  accession  he  brought  the  long 
war  with  Spain  to  a  close  by  a  treaty  which  involved  a  partial 
desertion    of    England's   ally,   the   Netherlands,   and  which  was 
unpopular  with  those  leaders,  like  Raleigh,  who  still  clung  to  the 


Coat  of  Arms  of  the 
Stuart  Kings 


394  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

policy  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  New  treaties  were  also  made  with 
France  and  with  the  Netherlands.  New  questions,  however,  were 
rising  in  Europe  in  which  it  was  very  difficult  for  England  to  avoid 
taking  sides."  Germany  was  still  separated  into  a  number  of 
different  states,  some  of  which  were  Roman  Catholic  and  some 
Protestant.  In  1618  a  war  broke  out  between  these,  the  Catholic 
states  being  helped  from  the  first  by  Spain,  and  the  Protestant, 
somewhat  later,  by  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  France.  This  is  known 
as  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  In  England  there  was  a  strong  popular 
desire  to  take  part  in  this  war  on  the  Protestant  side.  This  seemed 
the  more  proper  and  natural  as  James's  daughter  was  married  to 
the  Elector  Palatine,  the  leader  of  the  Protestants  in  Germany. 
Old  traditions,  national  and  religious  sympathy,  and  family  affec- 
tion seemed  to  combine  to  lead  England  to  join  in  the  war. 

James,  however,  was  not  willing  to  do  so.  In  the  first  place  he 
was,  by  personal  feelings  and  by  principle,  opposed  to  war.  Sec- 
ondly, he  had  so  much  confidence  in  his  own  influence  and  powers 
of  persuasion  that  he  thought  he  could  induce  the  contending 
parties  to  accept  his  arbitration  and  bring  the  war  to  an  end  of 
themselves.  Lastly,  he  was  so  much  under  the  influence  of  the 
Spanish  ambassador  and  so  unwilling  to  get  on  bad  terms  with 
Spain  that  he  could  not  bring  his  mind  to  oppose  the  Catholic 
allies  of  Spain  in  Germany.  Therefore  the  Protestants  in  Ger- 
many had  to  carry  on  their  struggle  without  English  help,  except 
for  a  few  volunteers,  so  that  in  this  respect  also  the  king's  policy 
was  unpopular  and  opposed  to  the  wishes  of  the  English  people. 

353.  The  Spanish  and  French  Marriage  Negotiations.  —  The 
principal  reason  for  the  close  relations  between  England  and 
Spain  at  this  time  was  that  the  king  had  set  his  heart  on  arrang- 
ing a  marriage  between  his  surviving  son  Charles,  the  prince  of 
Wales,  and  Maria,  the  infanta  or  princess  of  Spain,  daughter  of 
Philip  III.  James's  eldest  son,  Henry,  a  popular  and  promising 
young  man,  died  in  1612,  and  his  brother  Charles  was  created 
Prince  of  Wales  in  1618,  when  he  was  eighteen  years  gf  age.  As 


PERSONAL  MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS     395 

James's  daughter  was  married  to  a  Protestant  prince,  the  king 
thought  that  if  his  son  were  married  to  a  Catholic  princess  his 
influence  in  the  affairs  of  Europe  would  be  greatly  increased. 
One  marriage  alliance  with  a  Protestant  family  in  Germany, 
another  with  the  mighty  Catholic  power  of  Spain,  would  give  him, 
as  he  thought,  a  position  that  would  enable  him  to  act  the  part 
of  an  umpire  in  international  affairs,  and  induce  the  nations  of 
Europe  to  accept  his  guidance.  A  less  ambitious  but  not  less 
attractive  advantage  in  the  Spanish  match  would  be  that  the 
bride  would  bring  a  dowry  large  enough  to  pay  many  of  the  debts 
which  were  always  pressing  on  the  king. 

There  were  many  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  a  plan.  The 
English  and  Spaniards  had  come  during  the  war  of  Elizabeth's 
time  to  look  upon  each  other  as  natural  enemies;  the  Spanish 
government  would  not  agree  to  the  marriage  unless  the  princess 
should  be  allowed  to  keep  her  own  religion,  and  asked  that  the 
laws  against  Catholics  in  England  should  either  be  repealed  or  at 
least  not  enforced;  and  the  princess  herself  was  opposed  to  the 
match  on  religious  grounds.  But  the  obstinacy  of  the  king  after 
once  entering  on  the  plan  led  him  to  hold  to  it;  many  of  his 
courtiers  had  been  bribed  by  the  Spanish  government  to  encour- 
age it ;  and  the  skillful  Spanish  ambassadors  obtained  an  influence 
over  the  king  and  prolonged  the  negotiations  for  their  own  purposes, 
even  though  they  themselves  neither  expected  nor  wished  to  see 
the  marriage  take  place.  Thus  the  negotiations  were  kept  up,  with 
few  breaks,  for  more  than  eight  years.  During  that  time  James 
was  in  humiliating  and  unworthy  subserviency  to  the  influence  of 
the  Spanish  ambassador,  and  was  continually  making  promises  and 
concessions  which  he  had  to  keep  secret  even  from  some  of  his 
own  most  faithful  counselors.  Finally,  in  1623,  Charles  obtained 
the  king's  consent  to  go  himself  with  his  most  intimate  friend, 
the  marquis  of  Buckingham,  to  Spain,  there  to  bring  the  arrange- 
ment to  a  close  and  fetch  his  Spanish  bride  home  with  him. 
When  the  two  young  men  got  to  Spain  they  were  surprised  to 


396  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

find  the  difficulties  increased  rather  than  diminished.  The  Span- 
ish government  insisted  on  still  more  rigorous  conditions  when 
they  had  the  prince  practically  a  hostage  among  them,  and  the 
young  lady,  who  had  been  brought  up  in  the  extreme  seclusion 
customary  in  Spain  and  was  a  very  rigid  Catholic,  made  no 
response  to  Charles's  wooing. 

Worse  than  the  doubtful  reception  in  Spain  was  the  outcry 
that  arose  in  England.  The  Spanish  marriage  itself  was  bad 
enough,  but  for  the  prince  to  put  himself  in  the  power  of  Spain, 
for  James  to  have  allowed  him  to  do  so,  and  for  the  policy  of 
England  to  be  dictated  from  Madrid,  was  maddening  to  English 
statesmen  and  the  English  populace.  Charles  and  Buckingham 
themselves  felt  the  humiliation  of  their  position.  At  last  their 
patience  was  exhausted  and  they  came  home,  Charles  in  doubt 
and  vexation,  Buckingham  in  great  anger.  Within  a  short  time 
the  whole  project  was  given  up,  and  the  good  relations  between 
England  and  Spain  came  to  an  end.  Negotiations  were  soon 
afterward  entered  into  with  France,  and  Charles  was  married  in 
1624  to  Henrietta  Maria,  daughter  of  the  French  king.  She  also 
was  a  Catholic  and  the  marriage  was  not  a  popular  one ;  but  there 
was  not  the  hostility  to  France  that  there  was  to  Spain,  and  by 
comparison  it  gave  at  that  time  some  satisfaction  to  the  English 
people.  It  proved  at  a  later  time  to  be  of  malign  influence  upon 
the  happiness  of  the  royal  family  and  of  England.  Henrietta 
Maria  was  not  likely  either  from  her  personal  character  or  her 
bringing  up  to  endear  herself  to  the  English  people  or  to  develop 
good  qualities,  and  the  family  connection  with  France  was  likely 
to  be  a  dangerous  one  for  England.  For  the  present,  however, 
this  marriage  seemed  to  the  king  to  seal  peace  with  France,  and 
to  the  populace  to  be  far  the  less  of  two  evils. 

354.  The  King's  Favorites;  Somerset. — James  was  of  an  affec- 
tionate, demonstrative  nature,  and  was  intensely  attached  to  those 
who  made  up  the  intimate  circle  of  his  family  and  friends.  He 
could  never  refuse  anything  for  which  they  asked,  and  placed  no 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      397 

restrictions  on  himself  in  giving  most  lavishly  of  time  and  affection 
as  well  as  money  and  other  favors  to  those  for  whom  he  had  a 
personal  affection.  As  the  government  in  James's  eyes  was  as 
much  his  personal  affair  as  any  part  of  his  private  life,  he  naturally 
gave  government  positions  and  influence  to  his  favorites.  There- 
fore, alongside  of  those  ministers  and  holders  of  office  who  had 
risen  to  their  positions  by  virtue  of  their  ability,  services,  or  other 
influence,  there  were  others  who  were  in  power  simply  because 
the  doting  king  had  become  fond  of  them.  Buckingham  was  the 
second  of  two  young  men  who,  each  in  his  time,  were  so  favored 
by  the  king  as  to  have  more  influence  over  the  government  than 
all  the  other  ministers  together.  The  first  was  Robert  Carr,  a 
handsome  young  Scotchman  who  had  attracted  James's  attention 
early  in  his  reign.  James  became  attached  to  him,  knighted  him, 
gave  him  lands,  offices,  and  titles,  and  finally  created  him  earl  of 
Somerset.  He  was  all-powerful  with  the  king.  James  talked  over 
everything  with  him,  telling  him  his  most  secret  plans  and  thoughts. 
Every  one  who  wished  to  obtain  anything  from  the  king  had  first 
to  obtain  the  favor  of  Somerset,  for  no  request  which  he  trans- 
mitted to  the  king  was  ever  refused ;  nothing  which  he  opposed 
was  granted.  The  greatest  noblemen,  the  most  powerful  ministers, 
the  richest  commercial  companies,  all  had  to  make  presents  and 
pay  homage  to  the  king's  favorite.  This  went  on  for  some  years, 
till  Somerset  became  involved,  along  with  his  wife,  in  the  charge 
of  killing  a  man  by  poison.  He  was  declared  guilty  in  1616  and, 
although  the  king  would  not  allow  the  death  penalty  to  be  inflicted 
upon  him,  he  was  kept  in  prison  for  many  years  and  disappeared 
from  court  forever. 

355.  Buckingham.  —  In  the  meantime  a  new  favorite,  George 
Villiers,  had  taken  his  place.  He  in  the  same  way  attracted  the 
king's  attention  by  his  good  looks  and  manners,  his  high  spirits 
and  his  wit.  He  was  knighted  in  1616,  and  afterward  ennobled, 
being  raised  finally  to  the  highest  rank  of  the  peerage  as  duke  of 
Buckingham.  He  exercised  all  the  influence  over  the  king  that 


398  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

Somerset  had  possessed,  and  more.  He  was  granted  lands  and 
offices  which  brought  him  in  a  princely  income,  besides  receiving 
a  constant  flow  of  presents  or  bribes  from  those  who  had  suits 
to  make  to  the  king.  He  retained  his  influence  through  the 
remainder  of  James's  life  and  had  a  similar  influence  over  his, 
successor  Charles.  The  final  influence  in  breaking  off  the  Spanish 
match  and  deciding  on  the  marriage  with  the  French  princess  had 
been  exercised  by  Buckingham.  He  was  a  man  not  without  ability 
and  high  spirit,  but  he  was  poorly  educated,  without  training  in 
statesmanship,  with  all  the  self-confidence  of  ignorance,  and,  above 
all,  spoiled  by  the  possession  of  practically  unlimited  power. 

In  fact,  at  that  time  royal  favorites  seem  to  have  arisen  naturally 
in  other  countries  as  well  as  in  England.  Authority  was  almost 
entirely  concentrated  in  royal  hands,  and  the  king,  especially  if  he 
was  a  weak  man,  felt  isolated.  He  needed  some  one  in  whom  he 
could  confide  as  an  intimate  friend,  and  who  would  relieve  him  of 
some  of  the  personal  burdens  of  his  position  by  acting  as  distributor 
of  the  royal  favors  and  as  confidant  in  all  the  royal  plans. 

356.  Bacon.  —  There  were,  however,  men  about  the  court  of 
greater  mold  than  the  king's  favorites.  Many  of  the  great  writers, 
scholars,  and  statesmen  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  were  still  living, 
and  this  period  produced  great  men  of  its  own.  Of  the  former 
none  was  greater  than  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  or  Lord  Bacon,  as  he 
is  usually  called.  He  was  more  than  forty  years  old  when  James 
became  king  and  had  already  been  an  official  and  adviser  of 
the  government  under  Queen  Elizabeth,  although  in  no  very 
high  position.  He  was  learned  as  a  lawyer  and  as  a  student  of 
natural  science  and  of  philosophy.  He  was  witty,  polished,  and 
eloquent.  He  was  repeatedly  a  member  of  parliament  and  took 
an  active  part  in  all  its  work.  His  best  powers,  however,  were 
shown  in  political  thought  and  in  statesmanlike  judgment.  He 
had  the  clearest  ideas  of  any  man  of  his  time  as  to  what  was  wise 
policy  in  most  of  the  matters  of  government.  As  James,  however, 
did  not  feel  personally  attracted  to  him,  he  remained  for  a  long 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      399 

time  in  an  inferior  legal  position,  and  his  abilities  were  largely 
wasted.  Every  once  in  a  while,  when  some  difficult  question  came 
up,  Bacon  wrote  a  report  or  published  a  pamphlet  or  treatise  upon 
it,  usually  dedicated  to  the  king.  His  wisdom  and  skill  were 
unquestionable,  and  he  approved  of  the  possession  of  great  powers 
by  the  king,  because  he  thought  that  the  king  could  thus  bring 
about  needed  reforms  and  carry  on  a  wise  administration  of  gov- 
ernment. If  James  had  been  willing  to  trust  Bacon  and  take 
him  instead  of  his  ignorant  favorites  for  his  principal  adviser,  he 
might  have  carried  on  an  equally  autocratic  and  a  much  more 
successful  and  useful  government. 

357.  The  Fall  of  Bacon.  —  Slowly,  by  hard  work,  by  flattering 
the  king,  and  by  paying  court  to  Somerset  and  Buckingham,  Bacon 
was  after  middle  life  gradually  promoted  through  successive  offices 
till  he  became  a  member  of  the  king's  privy  council,  was  made 
Viscount  St.  Albans,  and  finally  became  lord  chancellor.  He  had 
not  held  this  position  many  years,  however,  before  heavy  trouble 
came  upon  him.  While  he  was  sitting  on  the  woolsack 1  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  presiding  over  that  body  in  his  capacity  of 
lord  chancellor,  charges  of  receiving  bribes  were  brought  against 
him  in  the  House  of  Commons.  On  investigation  it  was  found 
that  various  persons  who  had  had  suits  before  him  as  lord  chan- 
cellor had  made  presents  of  money  to  him,  which  he  had  accepted. 
He  does  not  seem  to  have  looked  upon  them  at  the  time  as  bribes, 
nor  was  it  proved  that  they  influenced  the  decisions  which  he  gave. 

It  was  quite  customary  at  that  time  in  all  countries  to  give 
presents  of  money  to  all  sorts  of  persons,  from  mere  servants  up 
to  the  king  himself,  with  a  view  to  obtaining  their  favorable  influ- 
ence whenever  there  was  opportunity  for  it.  Men  who  wanted 
positions  under  the  government  made  presents  to  the  king's 

1  A  throne  stands  in  the  House  of  Lords  which  the  king  or  queen  occu- 
pies when  present  and  presiding.  At  other  times  the  lord  chancellor  pre- 
sides and  sits  on  a  cushion  or  sack  of  wool,  emblematic  of  the  importance 
of  wool  as  an  English  product. 


400  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

favorite;  a  newly  appointed  minister  was  expected  to  make  a 
present  of  thousands  of  pounds  to  the  king ;  foreign  ambassadors 
made  presents  or  gave  regular  yearly  sums  to  many  persons  con- 
nected with  the  court.  The  line  between  bribery  and  the  giving 
of  presents  was  a  very  indistinct  one.  Nevertheless  Bacon  had 
clearly  overstepped  it  and  had  to  suffer  accordingly.  Two  other 
circumstances  transformed  his  faults  into  a  crime.  There  was  a 
general  and  proper  feeling  that  bribery  was  worse  in  the  holder 
of  the  highest  judicial  position  in  the  country  than  it  would  have 
been  in  any  one  else,  and,  secondly,  opinion  was  changing,  so  that 
the  offense  of  bribery  was  coming  under  more  general  condem- 
nation than  it  had  been  in  the  past.  Lord  Bacon  himself  when  all 
his  offenses  were  stated  said,  after  explaining  some  of  the  charges, 
"I  do  again  confess  that  in  the  points  charged  against  me,  although 
they  should  be  taken  as  myself  have  declared  them,  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  corruption  and  neglect,  for  which  I  am  heartily  and 
penitently  sorry."  The  trial  was  by  the  House  of  Lords,  in  the 
form  of  an  impeachment.  They  declared  him  guilty,  asked  the 
king  to  deprive  him  of  his  high  office,  condemned  him  to  a  fine 
of  forty  thousand  pounds,  to  indefinite  imprisonment  in  the  Tower, 
and  to  incapacity  to  hold  any  office  or  employment  in  the  gov- 
ernment. He  himself  acknowledged  the  sentence  "  just  and,  for 
reformation's  sake,  fit."  He  was  soon  released  from  imprison- 
ment and  his  fine  remitted,  but  he  had  to  live  the  rest  of  his  life 
in  retirement,  consoling  himself  by  writing. 

358.  Raleigh.  —  Bacon  was  probably  the  greatest  and  wisest 
man  of  his  time.  But  another  man  of  genius  of  Elizabeth's  time 
had  also  a  period  of  prosperity  and  of  disgrace  within  James's 
reign.  This  was  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  During  Elizabeth's  reign 
he  had  frequently  been  employed  by  the  government  in  various 
services,  as  a  soldier,  as  an  ambassador,  and  as  a  courtier,  and  he 
hoped  to  have  still  more  influence  under  James.  He  had  a  clear 
mind,  a  bold  heart,  an  active  nature,  and  much  experience,  and 
he  could  have  been  of  great  service  to  James  and  to  his  country. 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS     401 


But  he  was  not  favored  by  the  new  king  or  by  the  most  trusted 
ministers  of  the  king.  His  old  hostility  to  Spain  and  the  Catholics 
was  incompatible  with  the  policy  that  James  had  determined  upon. 
Not  only  was  he  not  advanced  but  he  was  deprived  of  some  of 
the  offices  and  estates  which  he  had  held  in  the  queen's  time. 
He  became  restless,  dissatisfied,  and  abusive  of  the  ministers,  and 
probably  talked  rashly  and  laid  himself  open  to  suspicion.  He 
was  therefore  arrested  and  tried  on  the  charge  of  taking  part  in  a 
conspiracy  to  dethrone  James 
and  place  Arabella  Stuart, 
James's  cousin,  on  the  throne. 
After  a  long  trial  Raleigh  was 
in  1 603  declared  guilty  of  trea- 
son and  sentenced  to  death. 
It  has  since  been  generally  be- 
lieved that  his  conviction  was 
a  mistake  and  that  he  was  not 
really  guilty. 

State  trials  at  that  time  were 
seldom  fair  trials.  The  mod- 
ern principle  that  a  man  is  to 
be  considered  innocent  until 
he  is  proved  to  be  guilty  had 
not  yet  been  adopted.  On  Sir  Walter  Ra]eigh 

the    contrary,   if   a  man  was 

formally  accused  of  a  crime  he  was  treated  as  if  he  were  guilty 
until  he  could  prove  himself  innocent.  He  was  not  allowed  to 
have  counsel,  he  did  not  know  what  he  was  accused  of  until  he 
was  actually  before  the  jury,  and  the  witnesses  against  him  did 
not  have  to  testify  in  his  presence.  If  the  charge  was  one  of 
treason,  as  in  Raleigh's  case,  the  whole  feeling  of  the  court  was 
against  him.  One  of  the  greatest  advances  made  since  the  seven- 
teenth century  has  been  the  increased  protection  given  to  a  pris- 
oner accused  of  crime,  and  the  provision  of  careful  means  by 


402  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

which,  if  innocent,  he  may  have  every  opportunity  of  proving  him- 
self so.  Raleigh  was  unpopular  and  was  known  to  be  dissat- 
isfied with  his  position.  His  guilt  was  therefore  easily  accepted. 
Although  he  was  sentenced  to  be  executed,  he  was  reprieved  by 
the  king,  and  though  neither  pardoned  nor  relieved  of  his  sen- 
tence, was  allowed  to  live  on  in  the  Tower  for  many  years,  con- 
soling himself,  like  Bacon,  by  writing  a  history  and  other  works, 
and  by  making  experiments  in  chemistry. 

359.  Raleigh's  Last  Expedition  and  Death.  —  After  remaining 
in  imprisonment  for  more  than  twelve  years,  Raleigh  succeeded 
in  getting  the  king  interested  in  his  plan  of  sending  another  explor- 
ing expedition  in  search  of  El  Dorado,  and  a  gold  mine  on  the 
Orinoco  River.  He  was  not  pardoned,  but  he  was  released, 
allowed  to  make  preparations  for  his  voyage,  and  given  a  com- 
mission allowing  him  to  go  out  in  charge  of  an  expedition  and  to 
occupy  any  lands  not  already  possessed  by  Spain  or  any  other 
European  nation.  James  hoped  to  procure  gold  in  abundance 
from  some  unknown  mine  which  Raleigh  was  to  discover.  Raleigh 
himself  was  tempted  to  take  all  sorts  of  risks  and  make  all  sorts 
of  promises  in  order  to  obtain  freedom  from  the  Tower  and  to 
exchange  the  monotony  of  a  prisoner's  life  for  the  joy  of  explo- 
ration and  the  wild  freedom  of  adventure  on  the  sea. 

The  expedition  was  more  than  a  failure.  The  mine  was  not 
found,  Raleigh's  eldest  son  was  killed,  and  a  battle  was  fought 
with  the  Spaniards  who  were  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Orinoco 
River.  As  Raleigh  had  pledged  himself  not  to  go  into  territory 
occupied  by  the  Spaniards,  the  Spanish  ambassador  demanded  his 
punishment  for  piracy.  James  was  not  willing  to  be  drawn  into 
war  with  Spain,  so  after  much  hesitation  it  was  decided  that  satis- 
faction should  be  given  to  the  Spaniards  by  executing  Raleigh 
under  the  old  condemnation  for  treason  which  still  hung  over 
him.  This  was  done  in  1618,  and  one  of  the  truest,  boldest,  and 
most  gifted  of  Englishmen  was  beheaded,  nominally  for  a  crime  of 
which  he  was  in  all  probability  not  guilty,  and  really  for  an  offense 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS     403 


which  most  Englishmen  felt  was  no  offense  at  all.  On  the  scaf- 
fold he  felt  the  edge  of  the  executioner's  axe  and  murmured, 
"  This  is  sharp  medicine,  but  it  is  a  sound  cure  for  all  disease." 
When  one  of  the  bystanders  begged  him,  as  he  kneeled  at  the 
block,  to  lay  his  head,  for  religious  reasons,  with  his  face  toward 
the  east,  he  replied,  "  What  matter  how  the  head  lie,  so  the  heart 
be  right  ?  "  He,  like  Bacon,  knew  that  his  heart  was  right,  not- 
withstanding that  in  the  difficulties  of  life  and  perplexities  of  the 
times  they  had  both  come  under  the  condemnation  of  the  law. 

360.  Settlements  in  America.  — The  reign  of  Elizabeth  had  been 
a  wonderful  period  of  exploration  and  adventurous  expeditions 
by  sea  to  various  parts  of  the  world.  The  reign  of  James  was 
a  period  of  settlement,  when  Englishmen  first  began  to  estab- 
lish themselves  and  found  colonies  on  the  coast  of  America,  in 
the  West  India  Islands,  and  in  the  East  Indies.  Several  times 
there  had  been  efforts  to  make  settlements  in  America  during 
Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  but  they  were  premature.1  While  Raleigh 
was  lying  in  prison  under  sentence  of  death,  the  plans  which  had 
been  formed  in  his  busy  brain  gained  acceptance  with  a  number 
of  prominent  and  influential  Englishmen. 

In  1606  a  group  of  these  men  obtained  from  the  king  a  charter 
authorizing  them  to  make  two  settlements  on  the  coast  of  North 
America,  one  in  the  southern,  one  in  the  northern  part,  and  pro- 
viding a  form  of  government  for  the  prospective  colonies.  Just 
at  the  close  of  the  year  1606  three  small  vessels  with  one  hundred 
and  five  adventurers  set  sail  from  London  and  made  their  way  to 
the  southern  coasts  of  those  regions  of  North  America  which  were 
claimed  by  England.  Early  in  1607  they  landed  and  founded  a 
colony  which  was  named  Jamestown  after  the  king,  and  which 
became  the  first  permanent  English  settlement  in  America. 

The  northern  settlement  provided  for  in  the  charter  of  1606 
was  established  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  but  the  colonists  suffered 
so  severely  that  after  a  few  months  it  was  abandoned.  The 

1  See  p.  354. 


404  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

greatest  difficulty  in  establishing  the  early  colonies  was  to  find 
suitable  colonists.  Criminals,  vagabonds,  and  broken-down  spend- 
thrifts gathered  up  from  the  streets  of  English  cities  were  not 
fit  to  contend  with  the  hardships  of  life  in  a  new  country. 
Not  till  more  substantial  classes  were  willing  to  leave  the  country 
could  colonization  take  place.  It  was  only  gradually  that  men 
and  women  went  over  to  Virginia  who  were  able  to  establish  a 
really  successful  colony. 

361.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers.  — There  was  in  England,  however, 
another  class  of  men  who  were  so  restless  and  dissatisfied  with 
their  position  that  they  were  ready  to  emigrate.  These  were  the 
extreme  Puritans.  As  the  reign  of  James  progressed,  the  laws 
requiring  conformity  to  the  established  church  were  enforced  so 
vigorously  that  the  Catholics  and  the  Puritans  alike  found  life 
nearly  unbearable.  They  were  forced  to  attend  services  which 
seemed  to  the  Catholic  tainted  with  heresy  and  to  the  Puritan 
to  partake  of  idolatry. 

The  gown  which  the  clergyman  wore,  the  ceremonies  he  per- 
formed, and  many  of  the  doctrines  he  taught  were  more  hateful 
to  the  Puritan  than  to  the  Catholic.  If  Puritan  laymen  refused  to 
attend  church,  or  organized  congregations,  or  held  services  of  their 
own,  they  were  fined  and  put  in  prison.  Clergymen  of  Puritan 
views  found  their  way  still  harder.  They  were  not  allowed  to  teach 
the  things  which  they  thought  were  true,  and  were  not  allowed  to 
conduct  worship  as  they  and  their  parishioners  wished.  A  group 
of  men  of  these  views,  most  of  them  living  in  Lincolnshire  and 
Nottinghamshire,  became  "Separatists," — that  is,  they  separated 
themselves  from  the  established  church  altogether,  and  since  they 
were  not  allowed  to  form  a  separate  organization  in  England,  left 
that  country  and  went  to  live  in  Holland,  where  religious  free- 
dom was  allowed  and  where  many  Englishmen  were  already  living 
for  purposes  of  trade.  They  lived  for  a  while  in  Amsterdam  and 
then  settled  in  Leyden,  where  they  had  a  congregation  of  their  own 
under  a  minister  named  Robinson.  After  remaining  in  Holland 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      405 

for  more  than  twelve  years,  many  of  them  became  dissatisfied  and 
wished  to  establish  themselves  where  their  course  of  life  should 
be  under  their  own  control.  They  applied  to  James  for  permission 
to  settle  in  America.  He  was  loath  to  give  any  privileges  to 
Separatists,  but  finally  assented,  and  they  borrowed  the  necessary 
money  from  a  company  in  London.  In  1620  the  "Speedwell" 
brought  the  "  Pilgrim  Fathers,"  as  they  have  always  since  been 
known,  from  Holland  to  England,  and  the  "Mayflower"  took 
them  from  Plymouth  in  the  old  England  to  the  new  Plymouth  in 
New  England,  which  was  to  be  their  future  home. 

362.  The  Puritan    Emigration. — When,  under  James's  suc- 
cessor, religious  persecution  in  England  became  still  harsher,  and 
when  the  growth  of  the  Pilgrim  colony  at  Plymouth  had  proved  the 
success  of  the  experiment,  many  of  the  Puritans  in  England  itself, 
even  those  who  had  not  separated  themselves  from  the  church, 
began  to  look  towards  America  as  a  place  of  greater  religious  free- 
dom and  of  greater  prosperity.    Land  was  therefore  bought  from 
the  successors  of  the  old  London  Company,  and  in  1628  Salem, 
to  the  north  of  Plymouth,  was  founded.     The  next  year  more 
colonists  left  England,  and  within  succeeding  years  a  great  number 
emigrated  and  established  a  group  of  settlements  along  the  coast 
of  Massachusetts.     In  the  meantime  the  Bermudas,  Barbadoes, 
and  some  other  islands  -of  the  West  Indies  were  colonized,  and 
the  fringe  of  settlements  was  gradually  made  more  complete 
along  the  whole  eastern  coast  of  North  America.     By  the  close 
of  the  reign  of  James,  or  soon  afterwards,  the  foundations  were 
well  laid  for  a  greater  England  beyond  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

363.  The  East  India  and  Other  Companies.  —  It  was  not  only  in 
America  but  in  other  parts  of  the  world  also  that  Englishmen  were 
getting  a  foothold.    The  formation  of  the  East  India  Company  two 
years  before  the  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign  has  already  been  men- 
tioned.    The  plan  of  the  merchants  who  made  up  that  company 
was  to  send  vessels  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  for  the  pur- 
pose of  trading  with  the  ports  on  the  coast  of  India  and  with  the 


406  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Molucca  Islands, — bringing  from  them  pepper,  cloves,  nutmegs, 
and  other  spices,  calico,  precious  stones,  dye  woods,  and  other 
such  products  ;  and  selling  to  the  Orientals  English  cloth  and  other 
articles  when  they  could.  The  company  established  agencies  at 
various  places  in  the  East,  but  had  much  difficulty  with  the  natives, 
with  the  Portuguese,  and  above  all  with  the  Dutch,  who  had  just 
preceded  them  there.  Nevertheless,  its  trade  and  capital  grew  and 
it  became  the  strongest  and  richest  of  English  commercial  com- 
panies. The  formation  of  such  companies  was  still  a  necessity 
for  the  trade  of  that  time,  as  it  had  been  in  the  age  of  Elizabeth. 
Individual  merchants  were  not  rich  enough  to  bear  the  expense 
and  risks  of  distant  expeditions.  Nor  was  the  government  strong 
enough  or  active  enough  to  make  all  the  commercial  arrange- 
ments necessary  for  distant  trade,  or  even  to  give  protection  to 
traders.  Companies  were  therefore  given  charters  by  the  gov- 
ernment authorizing  their  organization,  regulating  their  operations, 
and  giving  to  each  the  monopoly  of  the  trade  to  some  special 
country.1  These  companies  sent  out  agents  to  make  treaties  with 
foreign  rulers,  engaged  soldiers  to  defend  their  vessels  and  trading 
stations,  and  carried  on  trade,  usually  in  the  form  of  a  joint-stock 
investment  by  all  the  members  of  the  company.  It  was  under 
the  control  and  at  the  expense  of  such  companies  that  most  of 
the  early  colonies  in  America  were  established,  and  long  afterwards 
it  was  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  that  owned  and  governed  most 
of  the  vast  districts  which  are  now  included  in  Canada. 

364.  Discord  between  the  King  and  the  Nation.  —  While  Eng- 
land was  spreading  her  interests  thus  widely  through  the  world, 
at  home  there  was  deep  dissatisfaction.  James  was  so  unfortu- 
nate as  to  want  just  those  things  which  the  greater  part  of  his 
subjects  did  not  want  and  to  disapprove  of  the  things  they  did 
want.  He  wished  a  close  union  with  Scotland,  a  marriage  treaty 
with  Spain,  toleration  for  the  Catholics,  persecution  of  the  Puri- 
tans, and  peace  at  any  price  with  all  nations.  Popular  feeling, 
1  See  map  on  p.  357. 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      407 

on  the  other  hand,  was  opposed  to  closer  union  with  Scotland, 
to  the  Spanish  marriage,  to  the  toleration  of  the  Catholics,  to 
persecution  of  the  Puritans,  and  favored  taking  part  in  the  war 
in  Germany  on  the  Protestant  side.  Besides  this,  James  was 
constantly  in  need  of  money,  while  the  people  were  reluctant  to 
allow  themselves  to  be  further  taxed.  Above  all,  James  believed 
he  had  a  right  to  rule  the  country  himself  without  criticism  or 
interference  on  the  part  of  others,  and  spoke  and  acted  on  that 
belief.  There  were  many  who  agreed  with  him,  but  there  was  a 
far  larger  number  who  felt  that  the  king  was  bound  to  give  more 
consideration  to  the  wishes  of  his  subjects,  who  were  opposed  to 
his  ministers,  and  disapproved  of  much  of  the  policy  that  he  was 
carrying  out. 

365.  Discord  between  the  King  and  Parliament.  — This  opposi- 
tion naturally  showed  itself  most  conspicuously  in  parliament. 
There  were  eight  sessions  of  that  body  during  the  twenty-two 
years  of  James's  reign.    A  large  part  of  the  time  of  these  meetings 
was  occupied  with  disputes  with  the  king,  and  more  than  one 
session  was  brought  to  a  sudden  close  by  a  dissolution  due  to  the 
king's  losing  patience  and  temper.    Discord  dated  from  the  very 
first  meeting  of  James's  first  parliament  in  1604.    The  House  of 
Commons  claimed  that  the  question  of  deciding  a  dispute  between 
two  men  both  claiming  to  have  been  elected  to  the  same  seat 
should  be  decided  by  their  house  as  of  old,  while  the  king  had 
ordered  all  such  questions  to  be  referred  to  the  lord  chancellor, 
one  of  his  ministers.     In  this  case,  after  much  debate,  the  king 
gave  way.     James  tried  to  force  through  the  same  parliament  the 
union  with  Scotland,  which  parliament  resisted,  while  the  House 
of  Commons  strove   to  relieve   the  Puritans  from  some  of  the 
religious  restrictions  which  were  most  burdensome,  —  a  proposal 
which  was  opposed  by  the  king. 

366.  The  Financial  Dispute.  —  The  sharpest  conflict,  however, 
in  this  and  later  sessions  was  on  the  money  question.     This  con- 
test could  not  be  avoided.     Several  of  the  permanent  sources  of 


408  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

income  of  the  crown  were  becoming  steadily  less  profitable.  The 
amount  they  brought  in  was,  it  is  true,  the  same  in  pounds,  shil- 
lings, and  pence  that  it  had  always  been.  But  all  prices  were  rising 
so  much  that  the  same  amount  of  money  would  pay  less  of  the 
expenses  of  the  government  than  .it  had  in  former  times.  A  new 
and  more  liberal  system  of  taxation  was  an  absolute  necessity. 
Even  Queen  Elizabeth  with  her  habits  of  close  economy  in  matters 
of  government  had  scarcely  been  able  to  keep  within  the  regular 
revenue.  James  needed  more.  Even  if  he  had  been  economical 
and  penurious  some  new  taxes  would  have  been  needed,  but  he 
was  exactly  the  opposite.  He  had  a  large  family,  which  required 
a  more  expensive  court,  and  instead  of  being  parsimonious  he  was 
extremely  lavish.  He  spent  largely  on  court  festivities,  jewels, 
and  personal  adornments.  He  entered  lightly  upon  lines  of  policy 
that  cost  a  great  deal  of  money.  In  fact  he  was  a  thoroughgoing 
spendthrift.  As  yet  no  distinction  was  made  between  expenditure 
for  purposes  of  the  government  and  that  for  the  personal  objects 
of  the  king.  The  result  of  the  diminishing  revenues  and  increasing 
expenses  was  that  the  king  was  soon  in  debt,  his  expenditure  was 
far  larger  than  his  income,  and  the  finances  of  the  government 
remained  in  bad  condition  and  the  government  in  constant  diffi- 
culties about  money  during  the  whole  of  the  reign. 

James  was  therefore  in  a  position  in  which  Henry  VII  had  never 
been  and  the  other  Tudor  sovereigns  but  rarely.  He  had  to  make 
frequent  appeals  to  parliament  for  an  increase  in  taxes  and  grants. 
This  gave  parliament  an  opportunity  to  ask  for  a  reform  of  many 
things  connected  with  the  government,  to  demand  changes  in 
the  law  which  the  king  did  not  wish  to  have  made,  to  criticise 
his  wastefulness,  and  to  object  to  his  lavish  grants  to  worthless 
courtiers.  At  several  periods  a  long  time  was  allowed  to  pass 
without  any  session  of  parliament  being  called.  There  was  no 
session  held  during  the  whole  seven  years  between  1614  and  1621. 
But  the  money  needs  of  the  king  always  made  it  necessary  sooner  or 
later  to  call  parliament  again.  When  it  met,  disputes  immediately 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS      409 

arose  on  the  questions  of  policy  in  which  the  desires  of  the  major- 
ity of  the  people  and  those  of  the  king  differed,  and  on  special 
grievances  about  which  the  members  of  parliament  complained. 

The  different  ideas  held  by  the  king  and  parliament  as  to  their 
respective  powers  came  out  clearly  in  these  disputes.  James 
summoned  the  members  of  parliament  before  him  and  scolded 
them  or  praised  them  as  if  they  were  children  and  he  their  father. 
On  their  side  they  drew  up  protests  and  claims  as  to  their  rights, 
or  refused  to  grant  money  unless  the  king  gave  way  to  their 
requests.  This  conflict  of  opinion  came  to  a  head  in  the  meeting 
of  the  year  1621.  The  House  of  Commons  drew  up  a  long 
petition  to  the  king,  in  which  they  pointed  out  much  that  they 
thought  was  wrong  in  the  government  and  dangerous  to  England 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  asked  him  to  give  aid  to  the  Protestants 
in  the  war  on  the  continent,  to  make  war  on  the  king  of  Spain, 
to  marry  the  prince  to  a  Protestant  princess,  and  to  enforce  the 
laws  against  Catholics  in  England.  Although  this  petition  was 
expressed  in  respectful  and  even  humble  terms,  James  was  very 
angry  and  wrote  a  sharp  letter  to  the  commons,  telling  them 
that  they  had  been  discussing  matters  far  beyond  their  reach  or 
capacity,  and  infringing  on  his  royal  prerogative.  He  forbade 
them  to  mention  the  matter  of  the  prince's  marriage,  to  say  any- 
thing against  the  honor  of  the  king  of  Spain,  or  in  any  other  man- 
ner to  meddle  with  affairs  of  government  or  "deep  matters  of 
state."  As  to  their  privileges  of  freedom  of  speech  in  parlia- 
ment, he  wanted  them  to  understand  that  he  considered  himself 
"  very  free  and  able  to  punish  any  man's  misdemeanors  in  parlia- 
ment, as  well  during  their  sitting  as  after."  He  threatened  to 
use  this  power  "  upon  any  occasion  of  any  man's  insolent  behavior 
there." 

367.  The  Great  Protestation. — The  House  of  Commons  was 
not  willing  to  acknowledge  this  doctrine,  so  after  a  further  exchange 
of  letters  with  the  king  they  drew  up  and  entered  on  their  minute 
book  a  formal  protest  declaring  their  right  of  free  discussion.  Its 


410  '  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

most  important  paragraph  was  as  follows  :  "That  the  liberties,  fran- 
chises, privileges,  and  jurisdictions  of  parliament  are  the  ancient 
and  undoubted  birthright  and  inheritance  of  the  subjects  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  that  the  arduous  and  urgent  affairs  concerning  the 
king,  state,  and  defense  of  the  realm  and  of  the  church  of  England 
and  the  making  and  maintenance  of  laws  and  redress  of  griev- 
ances which  daily  happen  within  this  realm  are  proper  subjects 
and  matters  of  counsel  and  debate  in  parliament ;  and  that  in  the 
handling  and  proceeding  of  those  businesses  every  member  of  the 
House  hath  and  of  right  ought  to  have  freedom  of  speech,  to  pro- 
pound, treat,  reason,  and  bring  to  conclusion  the  same."  James 
heard  of  this  action  and  a  few  days  afterwards,  during  an  adjourn- 
ment of  parliament,  sent  for  the  journal  in  which  this  "  Great 
Protestation "  was  entered,  and  in  the  presence  of  his  council 
and  several  of  the  judges  with  his  own  hands  tore  out  the  page 
containing  it.  Shortly  afterwards  he  dissolved  parliament. 

368.  Close  of  the  Reign  of  James.  — The  one  remaining  parlia- 
ment of  James  was  on  better  terms  with  him.     By  this  time  his 
plan  for  the  Spanish  marriage  and  the  whole  fabric  of  his  foreign 
policy  which  was  built  upon  it  had  fallen,  and  he  did  not  feel 
the  same  self-confidence  as  of  old.     His  son  and  the  duke  of 
Buckingham  were  taking  the  powers  of  the  crown  out  of  his  hands, 
and  parliament  obtained  his  consent  to  measures  that  he  would 
have  resisted  in  earlier  days.    Among  other  things  the  lord  treas- 
urer Middlesex  was  impeached  and  driven  out  of  office,  another 
instance  of  the  revival  of  the  old  parliamentary  power  of  impeach- 
ment.    Parliament,  on  the  other  hand,  granted  liberal  taxes  for 
the  war  with  Spain  which  was  now  imminent.    James  died  in  1625 
and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

369.  Charles  I.  —  Since  Charles  and  Buckingham  had  exerted 
so  great  an  influence  over  James  during  the  last  two  years  of  his 
life,  there  was  no  great  break  when  Charles  took  the  throne  on 
his  father's  death.     There  was  little  probability  that  his  govern- 
ment would  be  a  wiser  one  than  that  of  James,  or  his  reign  more 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF  THE   STUARTS 


successful.  He  was  finer  looking  than  his  father  and  more  manly 
in  manner  and  character,  with  more  personal  dignity,  self-respect, 
and  conscientiousness.  The  many  portraits  that  have  come  down 
to  us,  painted  for  the  most  part  by  the  court  painter  of  the  time, 
Vandyke,  show  a  handsome  face  and  a  graceful  person.  He  was 
fond  of  ceremony  and  formality.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was 
reserved  and  silent.  He  was  not  nearly  so  well  educated  as  his 
father,  and  he  was  narrow- 
minded  and  slow  of  appre- 
hension. He  could  never 
see  two  sides  of  a  question, 
and  he  had  no  respect  for 
those  who  differed  from  him 
or  for  their  arguments.  He 
had  been  brought  up  to 
believe  in  all  the  high  ideas 
of  the  authority  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  king  which 
his  father  had  held  and  which 
were  fashionable  at  his 
father's  court,  and  he  held 
these  views  with  a  tenacity 
and  a  conscientious  serious- 
ness which  made  him  even  less  reasonable  than  his  father.  Buck- 
ingham was  more  influential  than  ever.  He  not  only  took  part  in 
all  the  discussions  of  the  privy  council  but  was  constantly  with 
Charles  privately  and  was  consulted  by  him  in  everything. 

370.  War  with  Spain When  Charles  and  Buckingham  on 

their  visit  to  Spain  had  found  themselves  deluded  and  outwitted, 
they  had  gone  to  the  opposite  extreme  and  determined  to  make 
war  upon  that  country.  When  the  new  reign  opened,  therefore, 
England  was  being  plunged  as  recklessly  into  war  as  she  had 
been  inconsiderately  pledged  to  peace  at  the  beginning  of  James's 
reign.  In  order  to  get  help  for  this  war  the  new  king  and  his 


Charles  I 


412  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

favorite  had  made  a  whole  series  of  plans,  promises,  and  treaties. 
They  expected  to  carry  them  out  themselves,  and  thought  that 
parliament  would  furnish  the  armies,  ships,  and  money  without 
asking  any  questions.  But  one  of  their  plans  after  another  failed. 
An  army  which  was  sent  to  the  Netherlands  accomplished  nothing 
and  was  almost  destroyed  by  disease ;  a  fleet  which  was  lent  to 
the  king  of  France  was  used  by  him  not  to  fight  against  Spain 
but  to  put  down  the  Huguenots,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  Eng- 
lish Protestants.  A  third  fleet  and  army  was  organized  in  1625 
and  sent  as  in  the  old  days  of  Drake  to  capture  Cadiz  and  there 
wait  for  and  capture  the  Spanish  fleet  which  was  due  from  America, 
laden  with  gold  and  silver  from  the  mines.  But  nobody's  heart 
was  in  the  expedition.  The  volunteer  navies  of  Drake's  time 
were  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  ships  were  now  mostly  merchant 
vessels,  forced  to  take  part  in  the  expedition,  and  their  captains 
wanted  only  to  keep  out  of  danger  and  get  safely  home  again. 
The  soldiers  who  were  taken  along  were  for  the  most  part  men 
pressed  into  the  service.  Everything  was  mismanaged  ;  they  failed 
to  capture  Cadiz,  and  the  treasure  ships  slipped  safely  into  port 
while  they  were  looking  for  them  somewhere  else. 

371.  War  with  France.  —  Soon  England  drifted  into  war  with 
France  also.  Another  fleet  and  army  under  Buckingham  himself 
were  sent  in  1627  to  the  Isle  of  Rhe  in  the  west  of  France  to  help 
the  Huguenots  of  Rochelle  and  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  French  gov- 
ernment. This  likewise  was  a  complete  failure.  The  fact  is  that 
these  expeditions  were  looked  upon  as  private  ventures  of  the  king 
and  his  favorite  only.  They  were  not  authorized  nor  approved 
by  parliament,  there  was  no  national  interest  taken  in  them,  and 
no  proper  equipment,  support,  or  leadership  provided  for  them. 
The  English  have  never  fought  successfully  unless  their  hearts  have 
been  in  the  contest,  and  at  this  time  their  interest  in  the  matters 
about  which  they  were  fighting  was  very  slight  indeed.  Thus  in 
foreign  affairs  Charles  and  his  minister  had  nothing  but  a  record 
of  blunders  and  failures  to  show  to  parliament  when  it  met. 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF  THE   STUARTS     413 


372.  Charles  and  Parliament.  — This  naturally  did  not  make  it 
easier  for  Charles  to  get  along  with  his  parliaments.  He  asked 
his  first  parliament  in  1625  to  make  a  large  appropriation  of 
money,  but  did  not  explain  how  it  was  to  be  used  or  why  there 
had  been  such  failure  already.  Parliament  declined  to  grant  the 
money  if  Buckingham  was  to  have  the  direction  of  the  spending 
of  it.  They  had  no  confidence  in  his  ability  or  in  his  character, 
and  believed  that  the  money  might  be  used  for  something  of 
which  they  did  not  approve,  or  if  devoted  to  war  purposes  would 
almost  certainly  be  wasted  and  bring  but  another  harvest  of  fail- 
ures. Back  of  this  lack  of  confidence  was  their  opposition  to  the 
very  position  and  powers  of  Buck- 
ingham and  their  wish  to  use  the 
opportunity  to  put  pressure  on  the 
king  to  remove  him  from  his  offices 
and  influence.  Charles,  on  the  other 
hand,  resented  this  as  an  effort  on 
the  part  of  parliament  to  prevent 
him  from  choosing  his  own  ministers 
and  to  get  practical  control  of  the 
government.  He  therefore  dis- 
solved parliament,  even  though  it 
had  voted  him  only  a  small  sum  of 
money  and  had  done  almost  nothing 
in  the  way  of  legislation. 

The  next  year  a  new  parliament  was  summoned  which  took  still 
stronger  ground  against  Buckingham.  The  House  of  Commons 
now  impeached  him  before  the  House  of  Lords,  and  charged  him 
with  some  crimes  and  many  lesser  offenses,  few  of  which  could 
ever  have  been  proved.  Charles  did  not  wait  to  let  the  proof  be 
shown,  but  in  great  anger  dissolved  parliament  before  it  had  time 
to  carry  the  trial  farther  or  in  fact  to  do  anything  else. 

New  subjects  of  discontent  now  sprang  up.  In  the  active 
preparations  for  war  made  by  the  king  and  his  ministers  there 


Duke  of  Buckingham 


414  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

had  been  much  disregard  of  the  people.  Soldiers  were  billeted1 
on  householders  without  their  consent.  When  disputes  broke  out 
on  this  account  private  citizens  were  punished  or  had  their  cases 
settled  by  the  decisions  of  the  military  commanders.  Although 
parliament  had  refused  to  authorize  taxes  to  carry  on  the  war, 
the  king  ordered  a  forced  loan.  That  is  to  say,  the  sheriffs  and 
other  officials  of  the  king  throughout  the  country  were  required 
to  summon  before  them  all  the  persons  of  any  property  in  their 
districts  and  put  all  the  pressure  they  could,  by  persuasion,  threat 
of  the  king's  displeasure,  and  otherwise,  upon  them  to  induce 
them  to  lend  money  to  the  king.  It  was  well  understood  that 
the  loan  was  not  likely  to  be  repaid,  and  it  was  generally  felt  to 
be  simply  an  unauthorized  tax.  When  some  men  refused  to  pay 
the  forced  loan,  they  were  imprisoned  for  a  time  on  the  mere 
order  of  the  king  and  the  privy  council  without  any  special  charge 
being  made  against  them  and  without  being  brought  to  trial. 

373.  The  Petition  of  Right.  — When  Charles's  third  parliament 
met,  in  1628,  these  recent  grievances  were  taken  up  even  before 
anything  was  said  about  Buckingham  or  older  subjects  of  dis- 
pute. Several  leaders  now  became  prominent  in  the  debates  in 
parliament.  Among  these  the  most  conspicuous  were  Sir  Thomas 
Wentworth,  Sir  John  Eliot,  and  John  Pym.  Wentworth  was  a  coun- 
try gentleman  from  Yorkshire.  He  was  a  born  reformer,  clear- 
headed, vigorous,  and  determined.  He  was  disgusted  with  the 
incompetence  of  Buckingham  and  the  inefficiency  of  the  gov- 
ernment. He  had  no  great  faith  in  parliament,  but  he  thought 
it  could  bring  enough  pressure  to  bear  on  the  king  to  induce  him 
to  choose  wiser  ministers  and  to  follow  a  more  reasonable  policy. 
Eliot  was  a  gentle,  high-minded  patriot,  who  believed  thoroughly 
in  the  wisdom  and  devotion  of  parliament,  and  glorified  the  old 
laws  and  personal  rights  of  Englishmen.  He  was  willing  to 

1  Billeting  is  placing  soldiers  to  board  in  private  families,  the  rate  of 
payment  not  being  one  voluntarily  agreed  upon  but  set  by  the  government 
or  military  authorities. 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS     415 

perform  any  labor  and  make  any  sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  what 
he  considered  the  preservation  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
nation.  Both  Wentworth  and  Eliot  were  vigorous  and  influential 
speakers  and  exercised  much  influence  over  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Pym  was  still  more  persuasive  and  skillful  in  expressing 
the  feelings  of  the  members  and  carrying  measures  through  parlia- 
ment. He  was  by  nature  a  party  leader.  These  men  and  other 
patriots  combined  to  proclaim  the  illegality  of  the  actions  spoken 
of  above  and  to  try  to  get  a  measure  passed  declaring  them  so. 
When  the  king  resisted,  Wentworth  withdrew  from  the  struggle. 
The  other  leaders,  however,  drew  up  what  was  called  the  "  Peti- 
tion of  Right."  This  was  a  law  declaring  that  enforced  billeting  of 
soldiers,  trial  by  martial  law,  loans  or  taxes  not  imposed  by  parlia- 
ment, and  imprisonment  without  a  specific  charge  were  all  illegal 
and  should  not  be  practiced  in  the  future.  This  was  passed 
through  the  two  houses  and  Charles  was  asked  to  sign  it.  He 
resisted  for  a  long  time,  and  tried  to  evade  its  acceptance  or 
rejection  by  giving  an  answer  in  general  terms.  But  parliament 
was  insistent  and  the  king's  need  of  money  great.  He  therefore 
gave  way,  agreed  to  the  Petition,  and  it  became  part  of  the  law  of 
the  land.  This  was  in  1628. 

The  Petition  of  Right  has  often  been  compared  with  the  Great 
Charter  signed  four  hundred  years  before,  and  although  it  is  much 
shorter  there  are  in  fact  several  points  of  similarity.  They  both 
have  to  do  with  practical  questions  which  had  recently  been 
in  dispute  rather  than  with  general  principles.  They  have  both 
since  been  referred  to  as  statements  of  fundamental  principles  of 
the  English  constitution.  The  really  important  point,  however,  is 
that  they  were  both  wrung  by  representatives  of  the  people  from 
an  unwilling  king.  They  showed  that  the  king  had  not  unre- 
stricted power  in  England  but  was  bound  to  acknowledge  certain 
rights  of  his  subjects.  In  1628  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  had  passed  since  parliament  had  forced  any  measure  upon 
an  unwilling  ruler.  During  this  long  period  the  kings  had  been 


416  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

nearly  absolute  rulers  and  parliament  had  been  willing  to  have 
it  so.  The  signing  of  the  Petition  of  Right  by  Charles  I,  therefore, 
represents  the  beginning  of  a  new  period  of  assertion  of  the  rights 
of  the  people.  With  these  questions  out  of  the  way  the  House  of 
Commons  again  began  an  attack  upon  Buckingham,  but  the  king 
immediately  prorogued1  parliament  for  six  months.  During  this 
prorogation  Buckingham  was  murdered  by  a  man  who  had  a  pri- 
vate grudge  against  him,  and  had  besides  been  stirred  to  action  by 
the  hard  things  said  in  parliament  against  the  unpopular  minister. 
374.  Religious  Disputes.  —  Neither  the  Petition  of  Right  nor 
the  death  of  Buckingham  settled  all  the  questions  in  dispute 
between  Charles  and  his  parliament.  The  religious  question  was 
still  an  unsolved  problem,  as  it  was  long  to  remain.  King  and 
parliament,  as  usual,  were  on  different  sides.  As  the  bitterness 
of  the  first  contests  of  the  Reformation  passed  away,  a  reaction 
occurred  in  the  minds  of  many  men.  They  were  less  hostile 
towards  the  Roman  Catholics,  they  saw  more  to  be  admired  and 
imitated  in  the  old  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  middle  ages,  and 
their  theological  opinions  were  different  from  those  of  the  more 
extreme  Protestants.  Such  persons,  however,  were  in  a  minority. 
They  had  the  sympathy  and  support  of  the  king,  and  they  were 
strong  among  the  clergy,  but  the  majority  of  the  members  of  par- 
liament and  the  great  body  of  the  people  had  no  such  tendencies. 
Puritanism,  on  the  contrary,  was  becoming  stronger  every  day,  and 
the  House  of  Commons  represented  the  Puritanism  of  the  time. 
Parliament  therefore  tried  to  punish  those  clergymen  who  intro- 
duced "popish"  ceremonies  or  wrote  books  of  non-Calvinistic 
theology.  The  king,  on  the  other  hand,  protected  them  and 

1  Prorogation  of  parliament  means  the  postponement  of  its  sittings  for  a 
certain  time  at  the  command  of  the  king.  Adjournment  means  a  similar 
postponement  by  parliament's  own  action.  Dissolution  is  a  closing  of  its 
sessions  altogether,  so  that  new  members  will  have  to  be  elected  when  it  is 
to  meet  again.  The  king  alone  can  dissolve  parliament,  and  he  alone  can 
order  the  election  of  a  new  one. 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE    STUARTS      417 

forbade  parliament  to  mention  the  matter.  The  fate  of  the  Stuart 
kings  to  be  in  opposition  to  the  majority  of  their  subjects  thus  led 
Charles  into  a  struggle  with  parliament  on  the  religious  question. 
375.  Tonnage  and  Poundage.  —  During  the  same  weeks  another 
dispute  was  in  progress  in  a  field  seemingly  far  away  from  religion 
but  bringing  up  the  same  conflict  of  powers  between  king  and 
parliament.  Tonnage  and  poundage  was  an  old  and  lucrative 
import  and  export  duty  of  so  much  on  each  tun  or  cask  of  wine 
imported,  and  so  much  on  each  bale  of  wool  and  a  few  other  arti- 
cles exported.  It  had  for  more  than  two  centuries  been  granted 
to  each  new  king  for  his  lifetime  by  parliament  at  the  first  session 
after  his  accession.  The  first  parliament  of  Charles  had  in  a  spirit 
of  defiance  granted  it  to  him  for  a  year  only,  intending  to  make 
it  permanent  when  their  grievances  had  been  attended  to.  The 
sudden  dissolution  of  this  parliament  had  prevented  its  grant  in  a 
permanent  form  and  it  was  left  as  a  temporary  tax.  Charles  natu- 
rally felt  that  parliament  was  trying  to  deprive  him  of  old  estab- 
lished royal  rights,  and  after  the  year  ran  out  ordered  his  revenue 
officers  to  continue  the  levy  and  collection  of  tonnage  and  pound- 
age, even  without  the  assent  of  parliament.  In  1629  parliament 
took  the  matter  up  again  and  a  bill  was  brought  in  to  grant  tonnage 
and  poundage  for  one  year  more.  The  king  sent  word  that  he 
would  not  approve  the  grant  in  this  form  and  continued  to  collect 
it  on  his  own  authority.  When  parliament  appealed  to  the  Petition 
of  Right  the  king  replied  that  it  was  only  taxes  that  were  included 
in  the  Petition,  and  that  he  never  understood  it  to  cover  tonnage 
and  poundage,  which  was  a  customs  duty,  not  a  tax.  The  point 
was  a  more  important  one  than  it  might  seem,  because  England 
was  fast  becoming  a  great  commercial  country,  and  duties  upon 
exports  and  imports  formed  a  large  part  of  the  income  of  the 
government.  Tonnage  and  poundage  itself  produced  one  fourth 
of  the  revenue  of  the  crown.  If  the  king  could  collect  these 
commercial  duties  without  any  law  allowing  it  by  parliament,  he 
would  be  to  that  extent  freed  from  his  dependence  on  parliament. 


418  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

These  quarrels  came  to  a  climax  when  parliament  reassembled 
in  the  autumn  of  1629.  Some  of  the  clergymen  who  had  revived 
the  old  ceremonial  forms  were  summoned  before  it,  and  revenue 
officers  who  had  seized  the  goods  of  persons  refusing  to  pay  ton- 
nage and  poundage  were  likewise  ordered  to  appear  before  par- 
liament. The  king,  however,  refused  to  allow  his  custom  officers 
to  appear  at  the  bar  of  parliament.  Things  had  reached  a  dead- 
lock. The  sittings  were  prorogued  for  a  few  weeks  and  when  they 
met  an  order  was  announced  from  the  king  for  another  prorogation. 
One  of  the  wildest  scenes  that  ever  occurred  in  parliament  ensued. 
As  the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  arose  to  announce  the 
king's  message  two  members  rushed  forward,  pushed  him  down 
into  his  chair,  and  held  him  there  while  Eliot  read  a  series  of  reso- 
lutions declaring  that  whoever  brought  in  new  and  unauthorized 
opinions  in  religion  and  whoever  paid  or  advised  the  payment  of 
tonnage  and  poundage  without  grant  of  parliament  was  an  enemy 
to  the  kingdom  and  a  betrayer  of  its  liberties.  Some  members 
rushed  to  free  the  speaker,  others  locked  the  doors  and  held  the 
former  back.  For  a  moment  it  seemed  that  the  members  would 
draw  their  swords  and  fight.  But  amidst  the  uproar  the  resolutions 
were  put  and  carried  triumphantly.  Then  the  speaker  was  freed, 
the  doors  were  unlocked,  and  the  members  poured  out.  The 
king  was  very  angry  at  this  defiance  of  his  authority.  A  procla- 
mation was  immediately  issued  announcing  that  parliament  was 
dissolved. 

376.  Personal  Government  of  Charles.  — This  occurred  in  1629. 
It  was  the  last  parliament  called  in  England  for  eleven  years.  If 
Charles  could  have  had  his  way,  parliament  would  not  have  been 
called  again.  The  problem  had  arisen  as  to  whether  the  king 
or  parliament  was,  in  the  last  resort,  the  supreme  ruler  of  the 
country,  and  the  king  was  determined  to  solve  it  in  his  own 
way.  The  years  that  followed  were  taken  up  with  this  effort  to 
rule  without  parliament,  and  are  commonly  called  the  period  of 
the  personal  government  of  Charles  I. 


PERSONAL  MONARCHY  OF  THE  STUARTS    419 

In  making  up  his  mind  to  rule  without  parliament,  Charles  was 
doing  just  what  kings  in  most  other  countries  were  doing  at  about 
the  same  time.  In  France,  in  Spain,  in  Germany,  and  in  other 
countries  the  bodies  of  representatives  of  the  people  which  cor- 
responded to  the  English  parliament  were  either  being  abolished 
altogether  or  reduced  to  a  very  inferior  position.  It  was  the  nat- 
ural culmination  of  a  strong  centralized  monarchy  as  a  form  of 
government.  The  Tudor  sovereigns  only  called  parliament  when 
they  chose,  but  they  never  tried  to  abolish  the  custom  of  consult- 
ing parliament.  Under  James  I  the  matter  had  hung  in  the 
balance.  Now  it  seemed  that  under  Charles  the  scale  of  absolute 
government  had  shown  itself  the  heavier. 

For  some  years  this  personal  government  of  Charles  bade  fair 
to  be  a  success.  He  had  much  better  ministers  than  during  the 
early  part  of  his  reign.  His  privy  council  was  made  up  now 
mostly  of  men  who  had  risen  through  their  abilities,  who  did 
their  work  well,  and  who  were  quite  willing  to  accept  the  claim 
of  the  king  to  absolute  power.  Lord  Weston  was  lord  treasurer 
and  carried  on  the  financial  business  skillfully.  The  king  had 
already  received  one  great  recruit  from  his  parliamentary  oppo- 
nents. Wentworth,  who  had  previously  opposed  him  in  parlia- 
ment, took  office  under  the  king,  became  a  member  of  the  privy 
council,  and  was  made  first  a  baron,  then  a  viscount,  and  finally 
earl  of  Strafford.  Wentworth,  or  Strafford,  as  he  should  now  be 
called,  ought  not  to  be  considered  a  turncoat.  He  had  never 
objected  to  the  possession  of  high  powers  by  the  king,  and  had 
opposed  him  only  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  him  to  choose 
wiser  ministers.  He  had  never  believed  that  parliament  ought 
to  have  a  higher  position  in  the  government  than  the  king.  He 
was  not  a  Puritan  and  did  not  sympathize  with  the  religious  intol- 
erance of  parliament.  When  he  entered  the  service  of  Charles, 
therefore,  he  probably  did  so  conscientiously  and  without  any 
feeling  of  dishonor,  though  even  in  his  own  time  he  was  hated 
by  his  older  associates  as  a  deserter. 


420 


A    SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


Charles's  principal  adviser  in  all  matters  concerning  the  church 
was  William  Laud,  bishop  of  London,  who  was  later  promoted  to 
be  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  ,  Without  being  a  man  of  genius, 
like  Strafford,  Laud  was  conscientious,  laborious,  and  determined. 

There  were  no  triflers  in  Charles's 
council,  and  the  king  himself  took 
an  active  interest  in  the  work  of 
government. 

377.  A  Policy  of  Peace  and  Order. 
—  The  wars  with  Spain  and  France 
had  never  had  any  very  real  reason 
for  existence,  and  peace  was  now 
made  with  both  countries.  Good 
order  at  home  was  somewhat  more 
difficult  to  obtain.  The  three  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Commons  who 
had  made  themselves  most  con- 
spicuous in  the  disorder  at  the  close 
of  the  last  session  were  arrested 
and  tried  on  a  charge  of  riot.  They  refused  to  plead,  claiming  that 
the  judges  could  not  take  notice  of  things  which  had  been  done  in 
parliament.  They  were  nevertheless  declared  guilty,  fined,  and 
imprisoned.  Towards  Sir  John  Eliot,  the  most  prominent  of 
them,  the  king  was  more  bitter  than  towards  any  one  else  during 
his  whole  career.  Eliot  was  an  old  antagonist  of  the  king  in  the 
earlier  parliaments  and  had  been  the  principal  mover  against  Buck- 
ingham. He  was  now  suffering  from  consumption  and  begged 
the  king  to  be  allowed  to  go  to  his  country  house  to  recover  his 
health.  Charles  refused  and  Eliot  died  in  the  Tower  of  London. 
Even  then  the  king  refused  to  allow  his  children  to  take  his  body 
to  be  buried  with  those  of  his  ancestors  in  his  old  home.  He  was 
buried  with  other  state  criminals  in  Tower  Yard.  The  persecu- 
tion of  Eliot  was  a  striking  instance  of  Charles's  poor  judgment  of 
character.  He  believed  Eliot  to  be  a  wicked  man,  actuated  only 


Archbishop  Laud 


PERSONAL  MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS     421 

by  faction  and  interested  motives.  Yet  there  have  been  few  purer 
patriots,  few  more  unselfish  and  beautiful  characters,  than  Sir  John 
Eliot.  He  believed  in  the  supremacy  of  parliament  in  a  contest 
with  the  king,  but  only  because  he  believed  that  parliament  was 
the  true  representative  of  the  liberties  and  virtue  of  England. 

The  two  great  difficulties  of  the  time  continued  to  be  religion 
and  the  finances.  Puritanism  and  the  "  high  church  "  reaction 
were  both  growing  stronger.  The  former  was  strong  in  numbers, 
zeal,  and  union  with  the  cause  of  parliament  and  popular  liberties. 
The  latter  was  strong  in  the  support  of  the  king,  the  authority 
of  the  bishops,  the  influence  of  the  universities,  and  the  approval 
of  many  persons  of  moderate  tendencies.  Both  parties  included 
men  of  great  learning  and  leaders  who  were  thoroughly  in  earnest. 
But  the  party  which  possessed  power  was  not  likely  to  refrain  from 
using  it  against  its  opponents,  or  to  appreciate  their  excellences  of 
character. 

378.  Punishment  by  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission.  — 
Many  of  the  more  violent  Puritans  were  therefore  prosecuted  and 
punished  for  their  writings  or  actions.     This  was  done  by  Laud 
or  some  other  person  in  authority  bringing  them  to  trial  either 
before  the  Star  Chamber  or  the  Court  of  High  Commission. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Star  Chamber  was  a  special 
court  formed  in  the  time  of  Henry  VII  for  the  trial  of  irregular 
cases  and  the  punishment  of  culprits  who  were  too  strong  to  be 
reached  by  the  ordinary  courts.  At  this  time  it  consisted  of  all 
the  members  of  the  king's  privy  council  with  the  addition  of  two 
judges.  It  was  therefore  merely  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
the  king  and  his  ministry  to  carry  out  their  will  under  the  form 
'  of  judicial  action.  The  Court  of  High  Commission  was  a  body  of 
bishops  and  other  clergymen  who  were  empowered  to  carry  out 
the  ecclesiastical  laws  of  the  country.  This  body  was  almost 
equally  under  the  power  of  the  king's  council,  or  at  least  of  Arch- 
bishop Laud,  who  was  the  most  influential  member  of  both  bodies. 
To  be  brought  to  trial  before  either  of  these  courts  was  therefore 


422  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

practically  the  same  as  to  be  condemned  by  them,  for  the  same 
persons  both  prosecuted  and  judged. 

In  1630  a  Scotch  pamphlet  writer  named  Leighton  was  flogged 
and  had  his  ears  cut  off  by  order  of  the  Star  Chamber  for  writing 
bitterly  against  the  bishops.  A  short  time  later  another  man  was 
heavily  fined  for  breaking  a  church  window  enriched  with  pictures 
of  saints,  which  seemed  to  him  superstitious.  One  of  the  heaviest 
punishments  ever  inflicted  was  upon  a  learned  lawyer  named 
William  Prynne.  He  was  an  extreme  Puritan  and  wrote  various 
books  against  drinking  healths,  against  the  fashion  of  men  wearing 
their  hair  long,  and  other  customs  of  the  day,  which  seemed  to 
him,  as  to  many  other  Puritans,  wicked.  Later  he  attacked  the 
prevailing  theatrical  representations  in  a  long,  learned,  and  dull 
book  called  Histriomasiix,  that  is  to  say,  "  The  Scourge  of  Stage 
Players."  It  was  a  series  of  charges  of  sinfulness  against  the 
drama  and  against  the  habit  of  attending  the  theater,  in  which 
his  arguments  were  fortified  by  numberless  examples  drawn  from 
antiquity  and  all  history.  His  statement  that  all  the  Roman 
emperors  who  had  encouraged  the  drama  came  to  a  bad  end  was 
considered  to  be  directed  against  Charles,  who  was  a  great  patron 
of  the  theater ;  and  his  charge  in  the  index  that  all  women  who 
took  part  in  plays  were  women  of  bad  character  was  supposed  by 
some  readers  to  be  a  reflection  on  the  queen,  who  had  recently 
acted  in  a  court  play.  He  was  prosecuted  for  these  libels  before 
the  Star  Chamber,  and  as  a  mark  of  their  loyalty  the  ministers 
who  made  up  the  court  condemned  him  to  stand  in  the  pillory, 
to  have  his  ears  cut  off,  to  be  fined  five  thousand  pounds,  and  to 
be  imprisoned  till  the  king  should  release  him. 

This  was  in  1633.  Four  years  later  Prynne  with  two  others- 
was  prosecuted  again  before  the  Star  Chamber  on  the  charge  of 
libeling  the  archbishop.  They  were  all  sentenced  to  the  pillory 
with  loss  of  the  ears  of  those  who  had  not  already  been  mutilated, 
to  pay  fines  of  five  thousand  pounds  each,  and  to  be  imprisoned 
for  life.  These  sentences  seemed  the  worse  in  that  they  were 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS     423 

inflicted  on  men  of  the  legal  profession,  of  private  means  and  of  high 
character.  Crowds  came  around  to  express  their  pity  for  them 
at  the  pillory,  flowers  were  strewn  in  their  path  as  they  walked 
thither,  and  the  sympathy  of  thousands  followed  them  to  the  various 
prisons  to  which  they  were  taken.  There  were  not  many  such 
prosecutions,  but  they  made  a  great  impression  on  the  country. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  Laud  was  obstinately  determined  to  force  every- 
body to  conform  to  his  and  the  king's  ideas  in  religious  practice, 
and  this  was  gradually  arousing  as  determined  an  opposition. 

379.  The  Metropolitical  Visitation.  —  Laud  was  a  good  man; 
learned,  conscientious,  and  hard-working.  There  were,  however, 
three  reasons  for  his  failure  to  rule  the  church  and  advise  the  king 
wisely.  He  did  not  understand  or  sympathize  with  the  enthusiastic 
personal  religious  feelings  of  the  Puritans,  who  included  a  large 
number  of  the  best  men  in  England ;  he  had  the  exaggerated 
belief  prevalent  among  the  officials  of  his  time  of  the  duty  of  sub- 
mission to  authority  in  all  things ;  and  he  was  harsh,  overbearing, 
and  unwilling  to  try  to  persuade  men  if  he  thought  he  had  the  law 
on  his  side.  In  his  effort  to  force  all  clergymen  and  laymen  to  use 
the  same  forms  of  religious  service  he  carried  out  between  1634  and 
1637  a  " metropolitical  visitation"1  in  each  of  the  archbishoprics 
of  Canterbury  and  York.  He  either  went  himself  or  sent  an  official 
to  each  parish  to  question  the  clergyman  there  as  to  his  practices. 
Unless  the  rector  or  vicar  was  in  the  habit  of  using  the  exact 
forms  of  the  prayer  book,  unless  he  was  willing  to  bow  whenever 
the  name  of  Jesus  was  mentioned  in  the  service,  and  to  have  the 
communion  table  always  placed  at  the  east  end  of  the  church,  he 
was  referred  to  the  archbishop  for  discipline,  and  in  extreme  cases 
brought  before  the  Court  of  High  Commission  and  removed  from 
his  office  as  minister.  Laud  claimed  that  he  was  only  enforcing 
the  law  as  it  stood,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  meaning  given  to 

1  Metropolitan  is  another  name  for  an  archbishop.  A  metropolitical 
visitation  is  an  inquiry  made  by  the  archbishop  or  metropolitan  into  the 
condition  of  the  church  in  his  province. 


424  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  words  of  the  law  had  with  the  growth  of  Puritanism  changed 
very  much  in  the  last  seventy-five  years,  and  Laud  was  really  try- 
ing to  drive  the  whole  church  of  England  back  into  ways  and 
beliefs  that  it  had  left  behind  it.  He  not  only  became  very  much 
hated  for  trying  to  enforce  a  law  which  men  did  not  believe  to 
be  right  or  just,  but  it  was  widely,  though  of  course  mistakenly, 
believed  that  he  was  gradually  preparing  the  way  to  reintroduce 
the  old  Roman  Catholic  religion,  and  that  he  would  soon  propose 
the  restoration  of  the  pope's  authority. 

380.  The  Declaration  of  Sports.  —  Laud  opposed  the  Puritans 
in  still  other  ways.     They  were  usually  very  rigid  in  their  observ- 
ance of  Sunday.     Laud's  party,  according  to  the  old  mediaeval 
custom,  allowed  much  more  freedom  of  action  and  amusement 
on  that  day.     The  magistrates  throughout  the  country  were  very 
generally  Puritan  in  their  feelings,  and  they  as  well  as  the  Puritan 
clergy  imposed  punishments  on  the  people  for  what  they  con- 
sidered  breaches  of  proper   Sabbath  observances.     At   Laud's 
advice,  therefore,  Charles  reissued  the  "  Declaration  of  Sports,"  a 
proclamation  originally  put  forth  by  James,  authorizing  with  some 
restrictions  the  playing  of  ball,  dancing  on  the  green,  and  other 
amusements  on  Sunday  afternoons,  and  forbidding  judges  or  min- 
isters to  punish  people  for  them.     The  king  ordered  that  this 
declaration  should  be  read  in  all  the  churches  on  a  certain  Sun- 
day.    This  order  aroused  great  resistance,  for  to  many  of  the 
clergy  it  seemed  a  wicked,  ungodly  permission  to  do  evil.     Thus 
the  outward  uniformity  and  order  of  the  church  were  being  secured 
and  enforced  by  Laud,  but  at  the  price  of  an  amount  of  suppressed 
antagonism  that  was  bound  to  show  itself  sooner  or  later. 

381.  Distraint  of  Knighthood,  Monopolies,  and  the  Forests.  —  In 
financial  matters  the  lord  treasurer  had  introduced  many  reforms 
increasing  income  and  decreasing  outlay.     The  close  of  the  wars 
with  Spain  and  France  had  also  reduced  expenditure.     The  old 
tonnage  and  poundage  and  other  customs  and  duties  were  still 
collected  without  authority  of  parliament,  and,  fortunately  for  the 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY    OF   THE   STUARTS     425 

king,  the  income  from  these  was  increasing.  Still  the  problem  of 
how  to  get  along  without  the  constant  grant  of  new  appropriations 
by  parliament  was  a  difficult  one.  After  all,  additional  revenue 
must  be  found  somewhere,  and  Charles's  ministers  put  their  wits 
to  work  to  devise  plans.  The  result  was  a  series  of  irregular  expe- 
dients similar  to  the  forced  loan  already  described.  All  men  who 
held  land  worth  forty  pounds  a  year  in  rent  ought  by  an  old  'law  to 
become  knights  and  hold  their  lands  by  feudal  tenure.  Although 
a  great  many  had  been  knighted  at  coronations  and  other  festive 
occasions,  yet  the  old  requirement  had  not  been  enforced  for 
centuries,  and  the  value  of  money  had  changed  so  much  in  the 
meantime  that  even  small  landholders  would  be  subject  to  it  if  it 
were  enforced.  The  king's  officers,  however,  proceeded  to  collect 
fines  from  all  persons  who  had  neglected  to  take  up  knighthood 
under  this  law.  The  courts  supported  them,  though  the  persons 
who  paid  the  fines  all  felt  that  they  were  being  unjustly  treated. 

Monopolies  given  to  individual  men  for  the  sale  or  manufacture 
of  certain  articles  had  been  lately  forbidden  by  law,  but  nothing 
had  been  said  in  the  statute  about  incorporated  companies  or  groups 
of  persons.  Advantage  was  taken  of  this  to  create  corporations 
and  to  give  them  the  sole  right  to  carry  on  certain  industries  in 
return  for  substantial  payments  made  to  the  government. 

Much  of  the  land  of  England  lay  within  the  old  tracts  that 
were  known  as  royal  forests.  Men  who  held  these  lands  were  not 
allowed  to  inclose  them  with  hedges  or  fences  and  were  limited 
in  other  ways  in  their  use  of  them.  These  limitations,  however, 
had  not  been  enforced  and  had  been  very  generally  forgotten  and 
frequently  violated.  Fines  were  now  collected  from  landowners 
who  were  responsible  for  these  encroachments. 

382.  Ship  Money.  —  In  these  ways  income  was  obtained,  but  at 
the  same  time  one  class  of  the  people  after  another  was  being 
made  to  feel  that  their  rights  were  being  sacrificed  in  order  that  the 
king  might  have  his  way.  Another  scheme  was  now  tried  which 
was  a  still  more  general  attack  on  men's  property  and  liberties. 


426  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  income  which  the  king  received  could  be  made  to  meet 
ordinary  running  expenses,  but  was  certainly  not  sufficient  to  pro- 
vide for  any  new  emergencies.  Yet  the  navy  badly  needed  funds. 
The  Dutch  and  the  French  navies  were  growing  rapidly,  while 
the  English  was  declining.  It  had  been  an  ancient  custom  in 
England  that  the  seaport  towns  should  contribute  the  vessels  neces- 
sary for  the  national  defense,  or  the  money  necessary  to  build 
them.  In  1634,  therefore,  the  king  issued  what  were  called  "  writs 
of  ship  money"  to  all  seaport  towns.  The  plan  was  quite  success- 
ful. The  seaport  towns  could  not  provide  vessels  of  the  size  now 

usual  in  warfare,  but  they  gave  the 
money  by  which  the  government  built 
and  manned  them.  In  fact  the  plan 
succeeded  so  well  that  the  next  year 
and  the  next,  ship  money  was  collected 
from  all  the  counties  of  the  kingdom 
as  well  as  from  the  seaports.  More- 
over, as  there  was  no  restriction  upon 
the  use  to  which  the  king  and  his 
ministers  should  put  money  when  once 
it  was  gotten  into  the  treasury,  ship 
money  bade  fair  to  be  a  permanent 
and  lucrative  source  of  income  inde- 
pendent of  parliamentary  grants. 

The  king  and  ministers  claimed  that  ship  money  was  not 
properly  a  tax  but  a  payment  made  in  lieu  of  military  and  naval 
service.  It  was  generally  felt,  however,  that  it  was  an  extortion, 
and  if  allowed  to  become  a  custom  would  free  the  king  from  the 
necessity  of  ever  consulting  parliament  on  money  matters.  A 
well-to-do  landowner  in  Buckinghamshire,  Sir  John  Hampden, 
felt  this  so  strongly  that  he  refused  to  pay  the  twenty  shillings 
levied  on  his  property.  This  brought  the  matter  into  the  Court 
of  Exchequer  to  be  tested.  A  long  and  famous  trial  was  held. 
The  lawyers  representing  Hampden  set  forth  the  popular  views  of 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY   OF   THE   STUARTS       427 


the  restricted  powers  of  the  king  and  the  fundamental  rights  of 
his  subjects.  This  was  a  welcome  opportunity,  for  when  par- 
liament was  not  in  session  there  was  scarcely  any  means  for 
such  opinions  to  be  publicly  expressed.  There  were  no  news- 
papers, and  no  books  could  be  legally  published  without  having  the 
approval  of  the  government.  No  mass  meetings  were  held,  and 
there  were  few  places  where  men  got  together  to  talk  over  public 
affairs,  except  at  court,  where  liberal  views  were  not  in  fashion. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  lawyers  for  the  king  defended  his  high 
powers,  and  there  was  of  course  strong  pressure  brought  to  bear 
on  the  judges  to  decide  in  his  favor. 
When  the  decision  came  to  be  given, 
as  it  was  in  1638,  seven  of  the  judges 
decided  for  the  crown,  five  for  Hamp- 
den.  The  king  therefore  had  the  vic- 
tory, and  ship  money  was  declared  to 
be  legal.  The  decision  was,  however, 
given  by  such  a  narrow  margin  that  it 
was  little  better  than  a  defeat  for  the 
king  and  his  ministers,  and  accordingly 
there  was  much  rejoicing  in  the  country. 

383.  The  Earl  of  Straff ord  Principal 
Minister.  —  As  time  passed  on  Went- 

worth,  earl  of  Strafford,  became  more  and  more  influential  in  the 
king's  council.  In  many  ways  he  was  the  ablest  man  in  England 
at  that  time,  and  he  was  devoted  heart  and  soul  to  a  successful 
administration  of  the  king's  personal  government.  For  a  time  he 
acted  as  president  of  the  Council  of  the  North,  a  court  which  took 
charge  of  all  royal  interests  in  the  northern  counties  of  England. 
It  had  been  formed  after  the  overthrow  of  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  instead  of  a  parliament  which  Henry 
had  promised  to  call  for  the  settlement  of  the  grievances  of  the 
northern  counties.  In  1632  Wentworth  was  made  lord  deputy 
of  Ireland.  Here  he  carried  on  an  administration  vigorous  and 


Strafford 


428  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

enlightened  to  a  degree  almost  unknown  before  in  the  history  of 
that  unfortunate  country.  During  this  time  he  was  in  correspond- 
ence with  the  king,  and  his  counsel  was  occasionally  asked  and 
given  on  political  questions.  Finally  in  1639  he  was  summoned 
to  court  by  Charles  and  became  his  principal  and  constant  adviser. 
Strafford's  motto  was  "Thorough,"  by  which  he  meant  a  thorough- 
going administration  and  a  thorough  devotion  of  every  one  to  the 
interests  of  the  king  and  of  the  country.  In  the  north  of  England, 
in  Ireland,  and  now  at  court  he  was  determined  that  no  opposi- 
tion, whether  of  self-interest,  of  old  tradition,  or  of  a  claim  of 
parliamentary  rights  and  privileges,  should  stand  in  the  way  of 
good  and  effective  administration  of  the  government.  This  was 
a  high  ideal,  but  it  was  the  ideal  of  a  despot,  and  it  was  likely  to 
intensify,  not  to  lessen,  the  growing  spirit  of  resistance. 

How  long  this  form  of  government  could  have  been  kept  up 
if  nothing  unforeseen  or  unusual  had  happened  it  is  hard  to  say. 
Peace  and  order  were  undoubtedly  being  kept  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  in  one  way  or  another  money  was  being  found  to 
pay  the  regular  expenses  of  government.  At  the  same  time  there 
was  a  growing  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  and  anger  throughout  the 
country,  which  could  hardly  be  prevented  from  soon  bursting  forth 
in  one  form  or  another. 

384.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1603  to  1640.  —  James  I  and 
Charles  I  had  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  rising  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence characteristic  of  England  in  the  seventeenth  century.  A 
degree  of  absolutism  in  government  against  which  the  parliaments 
of  Henry  VIII  or  Elizabeth  would  have  raised  no  murmur  awak- 
ened the  active  and  heated  resistance  of  the  parliaments  of  James 
and  Charles.  This  growing  desire  for  independence  and  for  shar- 
ing in  the  control  of  government  was  closely  connected  with  the 
growth  of  Puritanism.  An  independent,  individual  form  of  reli- 
gion was  apt  to  develop  an  assertive  spirit  in  political  matters.  An 
unavoidable  crisis  in  taxation  also  happened  in  the  time  of  the 
first  two  Stuarts.  The  rise  of  prices  due  to  the  influx  of  silver 


PERSONAL   MONARCHY    OF   THE   STUARTS     429 

and  gold  into  Europe  from  the  mines  of  Mexico  and  Peru  neces- 
sitated a  larger  money  income  for  the  government.  This  was 
staved  off  somewhat  by  the  increasing  productiveness  of  the  im- 
port and  export  duties,  but  the  pressure  was  constant  and  the  Stuart 
rulers  were  in  a  position  of  absolute  dependence  on  the  grants  of 
parliament,  a  disadvantage  from  which  the  Tudors  scarcely  suf- 
fered. They  were  also  put  before  their  subjects  in  the  unenviable 
light  of  making  demands  for  money  far  beyond  those  of  the  pre- 
ceding rulers. 

To  meet  these  difficult  conditions  James  and  Charles  were 
especially  lacking  in  good  judgment  as  to  men  and  measures, 
and  were  dominated  by  a  haughty  sense  of  their  own  powers  and 
rights  which  kept  them  from  anything  like  conciliation  or  com- 
promise. The  result  was  that  the  successive  meetings  of  parlia- 
ment were  occasions  for  endless  disputes,  and  when  parliament 
was  not  in  session  the  king  was  carrying  on  a  policy  which  was  fast 
making  the  breach  between  him  and  his  subjects  too  wide  to  be 
spanned  by  any  agreement.  The  last  test  of  this  policy  was  in 
the  period  of  personal  government  of  Charles,  from  1629  to  1640, 
and  it  was  a  failure,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  next  chapter. 

General  Reading.  — The  best  general  history  of  this  period  is  GARDINER, 
History  of  England  from  the  Accession  of  James  I  to  the  Outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War,  10  vols.  It  is  full,  scholarly,  and  fair  to  all  parties,  but  is  of 
course  very  long.  The  First  Two  Stuarts  and  the  Puritan  Revolution 
(Epochs  of  History)  is  a  little  book  by  the  same  author  and  with  many 
of  the  same  excellences.  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  viii,  sects.  1-5. 
MACAULAY,  Bacon  and  Hampden.  Two  brilliant  and  suggestive  essays,  of 
especially  great  value  to  young  readers  for  the  strong  impression  of  person- 
ality they  convey.  HUME,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  is  one  of  the  best  of  many 
biographies  of  that  favorite  character.  HUTTON,  William  Laud,  is  good 
though  extremely  favorable.  HALLAM,  Constitutional  History  of  England, 
is  a  standard  work.  MONTAGUE,  English  Constitutional  History,  and 
MEDLEY,  English  Constitutional  History,  are  very  good  shorter  works. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  constitutional  documents  of  the  period 
are  given  in  great  fullness  and  with  valuable  introductions  in  PROTHERO, 


430  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Select  Documents  of  the  Time  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I,  and  GARDINER,  Select 
Documents  of  the  Puritan  Revolution.  The  first  writ  of  ship  money  and 
other  documents  are  given  in  ADAMS  and  STEPHENS,  Select  Documents, 
Nos.  181-193.  Documents  concerning  the  Puritans  are  gathered  in 
Arber  Reprints.  Some  more  varied  papers  are  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book, 
Nos.  68-75,  anc^  COLBY,  Selections  from  the  Sources,  Nos.  68-70. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  SCOTT,  The  Fortunes  of  Nigel;  JAMES,  Arabella 
Stuart;  AINSWORTH,  The  Spanish  Match,  Guy  Fawkes,  and  The  Star 
Chamber ;  and  MARRY  AT,  The  Children  of  the  New  Forest,  refer  to  this 
period.  WORDSWORTH,  The  Pilgrim  Fathers,  is  a  fine  sonnet;  and  on  the 
same  subject  is  Mrs.  HEMANS,  The  Landing  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

Special   Topics.  —  (i)    The   Puritans,   MACAULAY,  Essay  on  Milton; 

(2)  The  Gunpowder  Plot,  GARDINER,  History  of  England,  Vol.  I,  chap,  vi ; 

(3)  The  Thirty  Years'  War,  ROBINSON,  History  of  Western  Europe,  chap, 
xxix;    (4)    The    Ideas    of    Laud,    TRAILL,    Social    England,    Vol.    IV, 
pp.   26-33  !    (5)  Voyages    and   Travels    under  James  and   Charles,    ibid., 
pp.  51-57;  (6)  The  East  India  Company,  ibid.,  pp.  130-138;   (7)  Disputes 
between    King  and  Parliament,    PROTHERO,    Statutes   and  Constitutional 
Documents,  pp.  310-317;  (8)  Riot  in  the  House  of  Commons,  KENDALL, 
Source-Book,  No.  72  ;  (9)  The  Voyage  of  the  "  Mayflower,"  COLBY,  Selections 
from  the  Sources,  No.  70;    (10)  An  Ideal  Commonwealth,  BACON,  New 
Atlantis  (in  Morley's  Universal  Library). 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  GREAT   REBELLION  AND   THE  COMMONWEALTH 
1640-1660 

385.  The  Scottish  Rebellion.  —  The  actual  breaking  up  of 
Charles's  plan  of  government  without  parliament  came  from  out- 
side of  England.  He  was  king,  it  will  be  remembered,  of  Scot- 
land as  well  as  of  England.  There  were  difficulties  there  which 
were  still  greater  than  those  in  England,  though  of  a  somewhat 
different  kind.  They  were  principally  in  regard  to  religion.  In 
Scotland  the  mass  of  the  people  had  carried  the  Reformation 
much  farther  than  even  the  English  Puritans  would  have  advo- 
cated. Among  other  changes  a  set  form  of  service  was  given 
up,  episcopacy  was  abolished,  and  the  presbyterian  system 
introduced.1  But  the  king  had  never  been  satisfied  with  this  ex- 
treme simplicity  of  church  government,  and  most  of  the  Scotch 
nobles  sided  with  him.  Little  by  little,  therefore,  James  had 
secured  the  reappointment  of  bishops,  and  then  a  restoration  to 
them  of  at  least  a  part  of  their  old  powers.  Charles  took  still 
more  active  steps  to  make  the  Scotch  church  like  the  estab- 
lished church  in  England.  In  1637  some  of  the  Scotch  bishops 
at  the  command  of  the  king  and  with  the  help  of  Laud  drew 
up  a  prayer  book  much  like  that  of  England,  though  even  less 

1  Episcopacy  means  the  government  of  the  church  by  bishops,  each 
having  charge  of  his  own  large  diocese.  Presbyterianism  means  the 
government  of  the  church  by  presbyteries  instead  of  by  bishops,  a  presby- 
tery being  a  body  made  up  of  the  pastors  and  certain  laymen  or  elders  from 
all  the  parishes  within  a  certain  district.  The  separatist,  independent,  or 
congregational  system  was  the  plan  of  allowing  each  congregation  to  govern 
itself. 

431 


432  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

satisfactory  to  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  than  it  was  to  the  English 
Puritans.  The  clergy,  the  people,  and  even  the  nobles  were 
against  this  set  form  of  service,  both  on  religious  grounds,  because 
it  was  too  much  like  the  old  Catholic  church,  and  on  political 
grounds,  because  it  seemed  like  forcing  English  customs  upon 
them.  The  new  service  was  read  for  the  first  time  in  St.  Giles's 
church  in  Edinburgh  in  July,  1637.  A  riot  immediately  broke 
out.  A  woman  stood  up  and  threw  her  stool  at  the  head  of  the 
minister,  and  others  thronged  out  of  the  church.  There  was  much 
excitement  throughout  the  country,  and  within  the  next  year  a 
pledge  called  the  "  National  Covenant "  was  signed  widely  through 
all  Scotland.  Every  one  who  signed  it  promised  to  try  by  all 
lawful  means  to  restore  the  purity  and  liberty  of  the  gospel  as  it 
had  been  before  the  recent  changes. 

Charles,  in  order  to  regain  the  good  will  of  his  Scotch  subjects, 
withdrew  the  prayer  book  and  promised  to  limit  the  powers  of  the 
bishops.  In  the  fall  of  1638,  however,  a  great  Scotch  church 
assembly,  consisting  partly  of  clergymen,  partly  of  laymen,  gath- 
ered at  Edinburgh  and  claimed  the  power  to  regulate  all  religious 
matters  for  the  country.  The  commissioner  representing  the  king 
refused  to  allow  them  to  exercise  such  independent  functions,  and 
finally  in  the  name  of  the  king  dissolved  the  assembly.  They 
refused  to  be  dissolved  and  proceeded  with  their  work,  abolished 
episcopacy,  and  reintroduced  presbyterianism. 

This  refusal  to  obey  the  king's  representative,  and  the  subse- 
quent interference  in  the  organization  of  the  church  without  royal 
authorization,  amounted  practically  to  rebellion.  Charles  felt  it 
necessary  to  go  up  to  Scotland  with  an  army  to  reduce  the  assem- 
bly to  obedience.  He  gathered  forces  as  best  he  could  and 
marched  northward.  When  he  got  to  the  Scotch  border  he  found 
that  the  assembly  had  itself  raised  an  army  stronger  than  his  own. 
He  was  very  short  of  funds  and  found  it  almost  impossible  to 
keep  together  even  the  troops  he  had.  He  therefore  entered  into 
a  treaty  with  the  Scots,  agreeing  that  all  the  points  in  dispute 


GREAT   REBELLION  AND   COMMONWEALTH    433 

should  be  settled  in  a  parliament  and  church  assembly  to  be  held 
in  Edinburgh.  Even  after  both  bodies  had  met  and  approved  of 
the  abolition  of  episcopacy,  Charles  refused  to  give  way,  ordered 
assembly  and  parliament  dissolved,  and  prepared  for  war  against 
his  subjects  in  Scotland.  These  two  contests  of  1639  and  1640 
are  often  called  the  "  Bishops'  Wars,"  because  they  were  fought 
for  the  sake  of  the  Scotch  bishops. 

386.  The  Short  Parliament. —  Charles  had  to  have  more  money 
if  he  was  to  raise  an  efficient  army.  Money  could  be  found  for 
the  ordinary  expenses  of  government,  but  the  only  way  to  meet 
any  extraordinary  expenditure,  such  as  that  for  the  formation 
and  payment  of  an  army,  was  to  get  the  English  parliament  to 
authorize  additional  taxes.  At  Stratford's  advice,  therefore,  in 
April,  1640,  Charles  called  parliament  for  the  first  time  for  eleven 
years,  hoping  that  it  would  grant  the  necessary  funds  and  not 
stir  up  any  other  questions.  The  moment  the  representatives  of 
the  English  people  met  after  their  long  intermission,  Pym  laid 
before  the  House  of  Commons  a  statement  of  the  popular  griev- 
ances. They  discussed  these  at  the  same  time  they  were  dis- 
cussing the  grant  of  money,  and  they  also  prepared  to  advise 
Charles  to  give  up  the  war  against  the  Scotch  altogether.  Rather 
than  allow  them  to  do  this  he  dissolved  parliament  after  it  had 
been  sitting  only  three  weeks  and  before  it  had  completed  any 
one  action.  It  is  usually  known  as  the  "  Short  Parliament." 

The  king  was  now  well-nigh  desperate.  The  rebellious  Scotch 
army  was  threatening  the  English  border  and  the  treasury  was 
empty.  Charles  had  men  pressed  into  military  service  from  all 
over  England,  bought  the  cargoes  of  pepper  just  brought  from 
India  on  the  East  India  Company's  ships,  promising  to  pay  for 
it  later,  but  selling  it  immediately  at  less  than  cost  price  so  as 
to  get  ready  money.  With  an  army  thus  obtained  he  marched 
northward  and  met  the  Scotch  army  on  the  English  side  of  the 
border  in  Yorkshire.  But  the  English  army  did  not  want  to  beat 
the  Scots,  and  it  was  evidently  impossible  to  make  them  fight 


434  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

against  those  with  whose  principles  they  sympathized.  Negotia- 
tions therefore  were  opened  with  them.  The  Scotch  army  was 
allowed  to  remain  in  the  two  northern  counties  until  a  final 
settlement  should  be  made  of  the  questions  in  dispute,  and 
were  promised  ^850  a  day  for  their  expenses  if  they  would  not 
march  any  farther. 

The  king  then  tried  the  plan  of  summoning  a  Great  Council 
to  meet  at  York,  to  consist  of  noblemen  only.  But,  as  his  money 
was  entirely  exhausted,  the  nobles  had  no  advice  to  offer  him 
except  that  he  should  summon  a  full  parliament.  Charles  was 
now  at  the  end  of  his  rope.  He  had  no  money  to  buy  off 
the  Scotch  army.  He  could  not  allow  them  to  march  as  they 
would  through  England.  He  could  not  safely  let  himself  fall  into 
their  hands.  There  was  nothing  to  do  except  to  take  the  advice 
given  him,  —  to  call  parliament  and  to  hope  for  the  best  from 
it  when  it  met. 

387.  The  Long  Parliament. — At  the  king's  summons,  there- 
fore, the  body  which  was  to  be  known  as  the  "  Long  Parliament " 
met  November  3,  1640.  All  those  who  had  opposed  the  king 
in  the  recent  Short  Parliament  and  most  of  the  surviving  men  of 
prominence  from  the  earlier  parliaments  were  elected,  and  if  was 
made  up,  therefore,  almost  entirely  of  men  opposed  to  the  king's 
policy.  Pym,  a  veteran  opponent,  was  its  most  influential  leader. 
John  Hampden  was  a  member,  as  was  also  another  country  gentle- 
man, —  then  unknown  but  destined  to  future  greatness,  —  Oliver 
Cromwell.  The  circumstances  under  which  parliament  now  met 
were  very  different  from  those  under  which  its  predecessors  had 
been  called.  Even  the  Short  Parliament  which  had  met  in  the 
spring  was  felt  to  be  only  an  experiment  to  be  dissolved  immedi- 
ately if  it  did  not  show  itself  obedient  to  the  king,  as  actually 
happened.  Now  every  one  felt  that  the  king  had  had  his  turn, 
and  that  parliament  was  at  last  to  have  its  opportunity.  Per- 
sonal government  had  been  tried  and  found  wanting,  and  limited 
monarchy  was  to  be  reintroduced.  From  the  moment  of  its  first 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH    435 

meeting  parliament  took  things  into  its  own  hands,  and  acted 
with  the  vigor,  assertiveness,  and  unanimity  of  a  body  which  feels 
that  it  has  for  the  first  time  the  real  power  and  responsibility  of 
government. 

Its  tone  towards  the  king  was  respectful  but  no  longer  submis- 
sive. It  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  carry  out  any  of  its  wishes 
because  of  the  known  objections  of  the  king.  Its  meeting  began 
a  new  period  in  English  history.  For  the  next  twenty  years,  from 
1640  to  1660,  with  some  interruptions,  parliament  either  actually 
or  in  the  background  controlled  the  course  of  English  affairs,  just 
as  Charles  had  been  in  control  of  them  for  the  preceding  fifteen 
years.  Nor  has  it  ever  since  fallen  to  the  insignificance  of  the 
sixteenth  and  early  seventeenth  centuries. 

388.  Execution  of  Strafford.  —  Strafford,  Laud,  and  some  of 
the  other  ministers  were  immediately  ordered  by  parliament  to 
be  arrested  with  a  view  to  impeachment.  The  first  two  were 
imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  the  others  escaped  to  the  continent. 
Strafford  was  then  impeached  by  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
charge  of  high  treason.  He  had  been  dictatorial  and  had  advised 
the  king  to  do  many  despotic  acts.  Yet  it  was  hard  to  show  that 
he  had  done  anything  treasonable.  He  was  very  generally  believed 
to  have  advised  the  king  to  bring  an  army  from  Ireland  to  force 
his  will  on  the  English  people,  but  of  this  there  was  no  certain 
evidence.  Yet  the  parliamentary  leaders  felt  that  Strafford  was 
the  soul  of  royal  absolutism,  and  that  he  must  be  removed  if  there 
was  to  be  any  real  change  in  the  king's  system  of  government. 
For  fear  of  acquittal  the  impeachment  was  therefore  changed  into 
a  bill  of  attainder,1  which  the  House  of  Lords  would  probably  be 

1  In  an  impeachment  the  proceedings  are  in  the  nature  of  a  judicial  trial, 
the  House  of  Commons  being  the  prosecutors,  and  the  House  of  Lords  the 
judges  or  jury.  A  bill  of  attainder  is  a  legislative  act  consisting  of  a  bill 
carried  through  the  two  houses  successively,  and  only  requiring  general 
argument,  not  specific  proof  of  specific  charges.  The  danger  of  injustice 
from  it  has  led  to  its  prohibition  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 


436  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

willing  to  pass.  This  plan  was  successful,  and  the  bill  of  attainder 
was  passed  and  brought  to  the  king  to  be  signed. 

Charles  was  in  a  very  difficult  position.  He  had  promised 
Stratford  when  parliament  met  that  not  a  hair  of  his  head  should 
be  touched,  not  a  penny  of  his  property  seized.  Nevertheless  it 
was  almost  impossible  for  him  to  refuse  anything  which  parlia- 
ment demanded,  for  if  he  did  parliament  would  not  grant  money 
to  pay  for  the  support  of  the  Scotch  army,  and  if  the  Scotch  army 
was  not  paid  it  would  continue  its  march  southward.  There 
were  still  more  personal  reasons  why  the  king  must  yield.  The 
queen  had  formed  a  plan  to  bring  a  foreign  army  and  foreign 
money  over  to  coerce  parliament,  and  when  this  did  not  succeed 
she  tried  to  get  the  English  army  which  had  lately  been  in  the 
north  to  come  down  and  put  its  power  at  the  disposal  of  the  king. 
When  this  became  known  she  was  threatened  by  a  mob  that 
gathered  around  the  palace  of  Whitehall.  Charles,  worn  out 
and  fearing  for  the  queen's  life,  gave  way  and  signed  an  order 
empowering  commissioners  to  give  his  approval  to  the  bill  of 
attainder  against  Strafford.  Charles  afterwards  made  an  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  to  seize  the  Tower  in  order  to  release  him  by 
force,  and  begged  parliament  fruitlessly  to  substitute  imprison- 
ment for  life  for  his  execution.  "  Put  not  your  trust  in  princes," 
was  the  comment  of  the  great  minister,  although  he  had  himself 
written  to  Charles  that  he  would  willingly  forgive  him  his  death 
if  it  would  lead  to  better  times.  He  was  beheaded  on  May 
12,  1641.  Laud  was  kept  in  imprisonment  in  the  Tower  for 
four  years,  until,  at  a  time  when  feeling  had  become  still  more 
embittered,  he  also  was  condemned  and  executed  under  a  bill  of 
attainder. 

389.  Constitutional  Reform.  —  Parliament  now  protected  its 
position  by  passing  a  bill  providing  that  it  should  not  be  dissolved 
without  its  own  consent.  This  the  king  reluctantly  signed,  and 
thus  divested  himself  of  the  power  which  he  and  all  his  prede- 
cessors had  possessed  of  bringing  a  session  of  parliament  to  an 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH    437 

end  when  they  wished.  A  bill,  known  as  the  "Triennial  Act," 
was  passed  providing  that  parliament  should  meet  every  three 
years,  even  if  the  king  should  not  call  it. 

Next  a  series  of  acts  was  passed  introducing  constitutional 
reforms  which  had  been  suggested  by  recent  experiences.  The 
Court  of  Star  Chamber,  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  the 
Council  of  the  North,  and  a  somewhat  similar  body,  the  Court  of 
the  Marches  of  Wales,  were  abolished  altogether.  The  collection 
of  ship  m'oney  was  declared  to  be  illegal,  and  acts  were  passed 
prohibiting  the  levy  of  tonnage  and  poundage  or  of  other  customs 
duties  without  the  consent  of  parliament.  Fines  for  not  taking 
up  knighthood  and  for  encroachments  on  the  forests  were  also 
prohibited.  All  these  measures  were  passed  in  the  years  1640 
and  1641.  To  all  of  them  Charles  affixed  his  signature  officially 
and  formally  if  reluctantly.  They  became  therefore  the  law  of 
the  land  and  in  most  cases  have  ever  since  remained  so.  It  was 
worth  parliament's  while  to  be  suspended  for  eleven  years  to 
obtain  such  a  complete  victory  for  its  principles  at  the  end  of  the 
period.  The  whole  system  of  personal  and  despotic  government 
by  the  king  seemed  to  be  destroyed.  Indeed  parliament  had 
gone  one  step  farther  and  introduced  into  the  government  a 
degree  of  parliamentary  control  which  was  much  more  of  an 
innovation  than  anything  which  the  king  had  done.  It  is  hard 
to  see  how  any  king  could  now  carry  on  the  government  without 
frequently  calling  parliament  and  without  taking  its  advice  in  all 
the  main  lines  of  his  administration.  So  much  having  been 
accomplished,  the  necessary  appropriations  and  negotiations  were 
carried  through  for  satisfying  the  Scotch  army  and  inducing  it  to 
leave  England,  and  for  dissolving  the  temporary  army  which  the 
king  had  collected  in  the  north.  The  original  occasion  for  the 
calling  of  parliament  and  the  most  pressing  grievances  had  alike 
been  attended  to. 

390.  The  Grand  Remonstrance Unfortunately  matters  could 

not  stpp  just  there.  New  difficulties  were  looming  up  in  the 


438  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

midst  of  all  these  victories  of  parliament.  One  was  the  fear  that 
Charles  would  in  some  way  get  control  of  an  army  and  forcibly 
dissolve  parliament  and  reverse  all  its  actions.  The  other  was 
the  fact  that  the  burning  religious  questions  had  not  yet  been 
taken  up,  and  as  soon  as  they  were  it  was  practically  certain  that 
parliament  itself  would  divide  into  parties  instead  of  acting  unan- 
imously as  it  had  done  on  constitutional  questions.  In  view  of 
the  first  possibility,  a  forcible  dissolution,  the  leaders  of  parlia- 
ment drew  up  a  long  document  known  as  the  "  Grand  Remon- 
strance," which  they  planned  should  be  their  justification  in  the 
eyes  of  the  nation  for  their  past  actions  and  future  plans.  They 
hoped  that  by  appealing  to  the  opinion  of  the  country  they  could 
disarm  any  attempts  of  the  king  to  take  revenge  for  their  action 
in  the  future.  The  Remonstrance  stated  one  by  one  with  a  great 
deal  of  boldness,  but  with  a  great  deal  of  exaggeration,  all  the 
crimes  and  wrongdoings  which  could  be  charged  to  Charles  since 
the  beginning  of  his  reign,  proposed  radical  reforms  to  prevent 
their  recurrence,  and  ordered  the  document  printed  and  circu- 
lated among  the  people.  It  was  carried  only  after  sharp  debates 
and  even  then  with  but  a  small  majority. 

391.  The  Religious  Question.  —  In  the  debates  connected  with 
the  Remonstrance  and  on  many  other  occasions  the  religious 
question  came  up.  The  claims  of  the  established  church  had 
been  as  much  a  source  of  dissatisfaction  during  the  personal  gov- 
ernment of  Charles,  when  acting  under  the  advice  of  Laud,  as 
any  of  the  other  matters  now  disposed  of  had  been.  Some  corre- 
sponding action  must  therefore  be  taken  upon  the  laws  governing 
religion.  A  party  composed  of  moderate  men,  who  wanted  only 
religious  liberty,  proposed  simply  that  the  powers  of  the  bishops 
should  be  limited  and  a  few  reforms  introduced.  They  were 
perfectly  willing  still  to  leave  the  general  oversight  of  the  church 
to  the  king  and  did  not  wish  any  fundamental  changes.  The 
strongly  Puritan  party,  however,  who  had  been  clamoring  for 
changes  ever  since  Elizabeth's  time,  wanted  episcopacy  abolished 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH    439 

entirely  and  all  religious  questions  referred  for  settlement  to  an 
assembly  of  clergymen  to  be  appointed  by  parliament.  It  was 
easy  to  see  what  such  an  assembly  would  do.  It  would  surely 
adopt  presbyterianism,  abolish  the  prayer  book,  and  make  the 
whole  church  of  England  rigidly  Puritan.  In  the  meantime, 
before  any  settled  plan  was  adopted,  attacks  were  made  upon 
the  bishops.  The  House  of  Commons  passed  an  act  providing 
for  the  removal  of  the  bishops  from  the  House  of  Lords,  but  the 
latter  defeated  this  on  the  ground  that  each  house  should  be  left 
to  decide  on  its  own  membership.  Then  the  Commons  im- 
peached as  traitors  and  placed  in  custody  twelve  of  the  bishops 
who  had  questioned  the  legality  of  actions  taken  by  the  House  of 
Lords  while  they  were  absent.  A  petition  signed  by  fifteen  thou- 
sand citizens  of  London  was  read  in  parliament,  asking  for  the 
abolition  of  episcopacy  "  root  and  branch."  On  the  basis  of  this 
petition  a  bill  was  introduced,  called  the  "  Root  and  Branch  Bill," 
providing  for  the  entire  abolition  of  the  episcopal  system,  but  it 
received  much  opposition  and  was  soon  withdrawn.  In  the  coun- 
try at  large  there  was  a  rain  of  pamphlets  for  and  against  changes 
in  the  church. 

392.  The  Irish  Rebellion.  —  While  religious  questions  were  thus 
dividing  parties  in  parliament,  news  suddenly  came  that  a  great 
rebellion  had  broken  out  in  Ireland  October  23,  1641.  The 
native  Irish  had  risen  against  the  English  and  Scotch  settlers  in 
Ulster,  and  in  fact  against  the  whole  English  government  of  Ire- 
land. The  most  terrible  barbarities  occurred.  One  story  after 
another  reached  England  of  the  slaughter  of  the  English  colonists, 
men,  women,  and  children,  and  of  their  unspeakable  sufferings. 
It  was  commonly  believed  that  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  had 
been  killed,  though  of  course  this  was  a  greatly  exaggerated  esti- 
mate. A  cry  of  vengeance  for  their  fellow  countrymen  in  Ireland 
went  up  from  all  England.  This  introduced  a  new  difficulty. 
Parliament  was  no  more  willing  than  the  king  to  see  Ireland  slip 
from  the  control  of  England,  and  its  wish  to  punish  the  Catholic 


440  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

Irish  was  even  stronger.  An  army  must  be  raised  and  sent  to 
Ireland.  It  would  of  course  be  in  the  hands  of  the  king  and 
would  remain  in  his  hands  after  the  rebellion  was  crushed.  What 
would  prevent  him  from  using  it  to  dissolve  parliament,  after  which 
he  could  withdraw  the  reforms  which  had  lately  been  granted  ? 

The  king,  anxious  for  revenge  for  the  execution  of  Strafford, 
resenting  the  appeal  to  the  people  in  the  Grand  Remonstrance, 
recognizing  that  parliament  was  not  so  unanimous  as  it  had  been 
at  first,  and  looking  forward  to  having  an  army  soon  at  his  back, 
began  to  feel  that  he  might  resist  parliament  and  immediately 
took  a  higher  tone  in  his  intercourse  with  it.  Thoughtful  men 
realized  that  no  real  agreement  between  king  and  parliament  had 
yet  been  reached.  Although  Charles  had  given  way  in  the  main 
points,  disputes  had  been  continual  and  bitter,  and  a  reaction  was 
always  possible. 

Charles  had,  moreover,  obtained  a  weapon  which  he  thought 
he  could  use  against  the  leaders  in  parliament.  He  thought  he 
had  found  evidence  indicating  that  the  Scotch  army,  when  it 
invaded  England  in  1640,  had  actually  been  invited  to  come 
by  Pym,  Hampden,  and  some  others  who  were  now  prominent 
members  of  parliament.  This,  if  true,  would  make  them  guilty 
of  treason,  and  he  therefore  took  the  unusual  procedure  of  order- 
ing the  attorney-general  to  impeach  them  as  traitors. 

393.  Attempted  Seizure  of  the  Five  Members.  —  But  the  king 
was  not  willing  to  let  the  case  take  its  ordinary  course.  In  January, 
1642,  he  took  some  five  hundred  armed  men  with  him,  went  to  the 
parliament  house,  stationed  the  soldiers  outside,  and  then  him- 
self strode  into  the  House  of  Commons  and  declared  that  he  had 
come  to  arrest  five  traitors.  Not  seeing  them  he  called  upon  the 
speaker  to  point  out  to  him  the  men  whose  names  he  mentioned. 
No  one  of  the  privileges  of  parliament  was  more  dear  to  its  heart 
than  its  freedom  from  the  intrusion  of  the  king.  When  the  king 
wished  to  address  the  House  of  Commons  it  was  the  invariable 
custom  that  he  should  sit  on  his  throne  in  the  House  of  Lords  and 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH    441 

have  the  Commons  summoned  before  him  there.  In  origin  this 
was  of  course  a  form  of  respect.  But  in  the  course  of  time  the 
custom  had  served  to  protect  the  Commons  from  intrusion  and  to 
guarantee  their  independence  of  action. 

By  coming  in  their  midst  in  this  rough  and  informal  way  the 
king  was  therefore  acting  most  offensively  and  imprudently.  In 
answer  to  the  king's  question  as  to  where  the  desired  members 
were,  the  speaker,  Lenthall,  though  he  knelt  before  the  king, 
boldly  replied,  "  May  it  please  your  majesty,  I  have  neither  eyes 
to  see  nor  tongue  to  speak  in  this  place,  but  as  this  house  is 
pleased  to  direct  me."  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  five  members  had 
learned  of  their  probable  arrest  and  had  taken  refuge  in  the  city 
of  London,  four  miles  from  where  parliament  was  sitting  at  West- 
minster. Failing  to  find  them  the  king  remarked,  "  The  birds  have 
flown,"  and  in  some  embarrassment  hastened  out  of  the  house. 

The  dispute  between  king  and  parliament  now  became  more 
bitter.  The  House  of  Commons  moved  for  a  few  days  to 
London,  professing  fear  that  the  king  was  going  to  attack  them 
through  their  leaders.  Although  the  city  now  extends  over  such 
a  great  area  that  Westminster  is  only  one  part  of  it,  they  were 
then  separate  cities,  four  miles  apart,  with  the  village  of  Charing 
Cross  halfway  between  them.  The  Thames,  however,  made  a  con- 
venient highway  on  which  barges  were  continually  going  to  and  fro. 
The  citizens  of  London  welcomed,  supported,  and  encouraged 
parliament,  and  the  militia  of  the  city  turned  out  for  its  protec- 
tion. A  few  days  afterwards  the  king  also  left  Westminster  and 
went  northward  to  Yorkshire,  carrying  on  his  negotiations  with 
parliament  by  letter.  The  queen  went  to  France,  taking  with  her 
the  crown  jewels,  which  she  planned  to  sell  in  case  there  should 
be  an  opportunity  to  obtain  an  army  by  the  expenditure  of  money. 

394.  The  Militia.  —  Both  king  and  parliament  felt  that  the 
stage  of  peaceful  debate,  and  even  of  embittered  dispute,  was  fast 
passing  away,  and  that  unless  one  or  the  other  gave  way  entirely 
fighting  would  soon  follow.  As  neither  king  nor  parliament  was 


442  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

now  likely  to  yield,  there  was  nothing  left  but  for  each  party  to 
prepare  for  war. 

There  was  no  standing  army  in  England.  The  king  had  a 
few  guards,  there  were  some  hundreds  of  soldiers  kept  in  garri- 
son a't  four  or  five  castles,  and  there  was  a  small  amount  of  war 
material  stored  here  and  there  in  the  royal  castles.  But  the 
only  organized  body  of  soldiery  was  the  militia,  or  trained  bands. 
These  were  much  like  the  present  militia  of  England  or  the  United 
States.  They  comprised  certain  men  who  came  out  for  awhile 
every  year  for  drill  and  then  returned  to  their  ordinary  occupa- 
tions. Both  houses  of  parliament  united  in  passing  a  bill,  which 
they  could  hardly  have  expected  the  king  to  sign,  putting  the  con- 
trol of  the  trained  bands  when  called  out  in  the  hands  of  a  gen- 
eral appointed  by  parliament.  To  this  the  king  promptly  and 
harshly  refused  to  agree.  Then  the  House  of  Lords  united  with 
the  House  of  Commons  in  ordering  on  their  own  responsibility 
that  the  country  should  be  put  in  a  state  of  defense,  and  appointed 
a  lord  lieutenant  of  each  county  to  take  charge  of  this  defense. 
Charles,  on  the  other  hand,  with  a  group  of  armed  followers  rode 
to  Hull  in  Yorkshire,  where  the  arms  and  ammunition  which  had 
been  provided  for  the  Scottish  war  were  stored,  and  demanded 
possession  of  them.  The  commander,  Sir  John  Hotham,  who  had 
been  placed  in  charge  of  that  castle  by  parliament,  refused  to 
admit  the  king,  drew  up  the  drawbridge,  and  shut  the  gates. 

Charles  declared  Hotham  a  traitor,  rode  southward  to  Not- 
tingham, and  there  on  August  22,  1642,  in  the  castle  yard,  set 
up  the  royal  standard  and  called  on  all  loyal  Englishmen  to 
gather  to  its  defense  against  a  rebellious  parliament.  Parliament 
appointed  one  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Lords,  the  earl 
of  Essex,  general  of  its  forces  and  proceeded  to  organize  an 
army  and  get  control  of  the  navy. 

395.  The  Civil  War. — This  was  the  beginning  of  civil  war. 
Generally  speaking  the  northern  and  western  parts  of  the  coun- 
try took  the  side  of  the  king,  the  southern  and  eastern  the  side 


2         from     Greenwich          Q 

DIVISION  OF  ENGLAND 

into  Parties 
at  opening  of  Civil  War 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH    443 

of  parliament.  If  a  line  were  drawn  roughly  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Humber  River  southwestward  to  the  mouth  of  the  Severn, 
most  of  the  country  to  the  northwest  of  this  would  be  royalist, 
that  to  the  southeast  parliamentarian.  Most  of  the  nobles, 
wealthier  gentry,  and  higher  churchmen  were  royalist,  the  middle 
classes  were  parliamentarian.  The  more  thinly  settled  districts, 
a  few  of  the  large  residence  towns,  and  most  of  the  smaller  coun- 
try towns  were  in  favor  of  the  king,  while  London  and  other 
manufacturing  and  commercial  towns  were  strongly  in  favor  of 
parliament.  There  were  of  course  many  exceptions  to  these 
divisions.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  more  advanced, 
thoughtful,  and  active-minded  classes  and  localities  were  parlia- 
mentarian, the  more  conservative  royalist. 

Something  more  than  a  majority  of  members  of  the  House  of 
Lords  and  a  considerable  number  of  the  Commons  went  to  join 
the  king  at  Nottingham.  Those  who  took  the  king's  side  were 
called  "  Cavaliers " ;  the  parliamentary  army  were  known  as 
"  Roundheads."  These  party  names  had  arisen  during  the  period 
of  dispute  while  the  king  was  still  at  Whitehall  palace  in  West- 
minster. The  courtiers  in  his  service  there  were  called  "  cava- 
liers," or  soldiers,  a  term  of  reproach  suggesting  recklessness  of 
life  and  manners.  They  in  turn  called  the  Puritan  tradesmen  and 
apprentices  who  made  up  the  mobs  which  gathered  around  the 
parliament  house  "roundheads,"  because  they  wore  their  hair  cut 
short  instead  of  allowing  it  to  fall  in  long  curls  on  the  neck,  as 
was  the  fashion  of  the  time  among  the  upper  classes. 

The  details  of  the  war  cannot  of  course  be  given  here.  There 
were  many  skirmishes  and  sieges  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 
At  first  the  king  tried  to  push  right  to  London  to  end  the  war  at 
a  blow,  but  the  hard- fought  battle  of  Edgehill *  and  the  solid  front 

1  Soon  after  this  battle  Hampden  was  killed  in  a  skirmish  and  the  next 
year  Pym  died.  Falkland,  one  of  the  early  reformers  who  had,  though  with 
much  reluctance,  taken  the  king's  side,  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Newbury 
in  the  same  year. 


444  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

shown  by  the  trained  bands  of  London  as  they  marched  out  from 
the  city  forced  him  to  withdraw  to  Oxford  and  lose  the  best 
opportunity  of  the  war. 

The  fighting,  however,  for  some  time  went  pretty  steadily  in 
favor  of  the  king.  He  organized  three  armies,  one  in  the  north, 
one  in  the  west,  and  one  with  Oxford  as  its  headquarters.  His 
plan  was  for  the  first  two  of  these  to  advance  southward  and  east- 
ward to  the  Thames  below  London,  cutting  off  its  commerce,  while 
he  should  with  the  third  dash  again  upon  the  capital  from  the 
northwest.  There  was,  however,  so  much  besieging  of  parliamen- 
tary towns,  fighting  of  parliamentary  armies,  and  cutting  through 
of  districts  held  by  parliamentary  troops  that  this  policy  could  never 
be  thoroughly  carried  out,  even  though  the  royal  army  was  usually 
successful  in  the  engagements. 

396.  The   Solemn    League   and   Covenant.  —  Parliament   soon 
entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  Scots,  who  were  already  on  the 
verge  of  renewed  rebellion.    The  treaty  was  known  as  the  "  Solemn 
League  and  "Covenant,"  and  was  an  agreement  entered  into  by 
the  Scottish  and  English  parliaments  and  ordered  to  be  sworn  to 
by  all  Scotchmen  and  Englishmen.    All  those  who  signed  it  agreed 
to  bring  the  religion  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  to  the 
same  form,  which  should  be  "  according  to  the  word  of  God  and 
the  example  of  the  best  reformed  churches."     Money  was  sent  by 
the  English  parliament  to  Scotland,  and  a  Scotch  army  was  soon 
organized  and  marched  southward  to  help  the  parliamentary  army 
against  the  king.     A  "  Committee  of  both  Kingdoms  "  was  also 
appointed  by  the  two  parliaments  to  take  charge  of  the  war. 

397.  Oliver  Cromwell.  —  The  result  of  this  alliance  was  seen 
soon  afterwards.     In  the  battle  of  Marston  Moor,  fought  July  2, 
1644,  the  royalists  were  badly  defeated  by  the  united  English  and 
Scotch  armies.     The  parliamentary  officer  who  was  in  command 
of  the  cavalry,  and  who  really  did  most  to  win  this  battle,  was  a 
man  who  from  this   time  onward  began  to  come  into  greater 
prominence,  —  Oliver  Cromwell.    He  was  a  member  of  the  House 


GREAT  REBELLION  AND   COMMONWEALTH      445 

of  Commons,  representing  the  town  of  Cambridge.  He  had 
taken  an  active  though  scarcely  a  leading  part  in  all  the  actions 
by  which  the  king  had  been  forced  to  grant  reforms.  He  had 
early  volunteered  for  military  duty  and  had  organized  a  cavalry 
troop,  known  as  the  "Ironsides,"  which  became  famous  for  its  dis- 
cipline, fighting  ability,  and  constant  success.  Cromwell  had  next 
been  made  second  in  command  of  a  portion  of  the  parliamentary 
army  formed  by  a  group  of  the  eastern  counties,  known  as  the 
"  Eastern  Association."  He  was  an  earnest  Puritan  and  drew  men 
into  his  regiment  who  were  equally  religious  and  earnest.  He  be- 
lieved the  only  way  to  meet  the  spirit  and  courage  of  the  gentry 
in  the  king's  army  was  to  awaken  religious,  enthusiasm  and  extend 
religious  discipline  among  the  men  fighting  on  the  parliament's 
side.  At  Marston  Moor,  after  defeating  with  his  cavalry  those 
immediately  opposed  to  him,  he  wheeled  around  and  attacked 
the  remaining  part  of  the  king's  forces  on  the  flank,  threw  them 
into  confusion,  and  won  the  first  important  parliamentary  victory. 
398.  Presbyterianism.  —  By  the  summei  of  1644,  although  the 
tide  of  war  seemed  to  be  turning  in  favor  of  parliament,  the  major- 
ity of  that  body  and  many  of  the  leaders  of  its  army  were  begin- 
ning to  lose  their  interest  in  the  struggle  and  to  look  forward  to 
some  kind  of  a  compromise  with  the  king.  This  was  due  to  the 
course  of  religious  change.  Parliament  had  carried  out  its  plan 
of  calling  an  assembly  of  Puritan  clergymen  to  meet  at  Westmin- 
ster whose  duty  it  should  be  to  draw  up  regulations  for  the  form 
of  government,  ceremonies,  and  doctrines  of  the  English  church. 
During  its  deliberations  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was 
entered  into  with  Scotland  and  went  far  to  pledge  the  English 
parliament  to  introduce  presbyterianism.  The  Westminster 
Assembly  declared  against  episcopacy,  and  soon  an  ordinance1 

1  As  the  king  would  not  now  sign  any  bills  passed  by  parliament,  they 
could  not  properly  be  called  laws.  The  term  "ordinances"  was  therefore 
applied  to  resolutions  carried  through  both  houses  of  parliament  and  put 
into  force  by  their  authority  alone,  without  the  king's  signature. 


446  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

was  passed  by  the  two  houses  of  parliament  making  the  English 
church  presbyterian  in  its  organization. 

There  were  no  longer  any  bishops.  Each  minister  had  much 
power  over  his  own  congregation,  though  a  still  higher  power 
rested  in  the  presbytery  or  organization  of  the  ministers  and  elders 
of  each  district,  and  all  were  alike  subject  to  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  church.  The  doctrines  of  the  church  were  drawn  up  in  the 
form  of  the  Westminster  Confession,  still  the  rule  of  faith  in  Pres- 
byterian churches.  The  services  and  ceremonies  were  made  much 
simpler  than  they  had  been.  The  use  of  the  book  of  common 
prayer  was  forbidden  and  a  book  of  general  directions  for  church 
worship  issued.  Altars  and  communion  rails  were  removed  from 
the  churches,  images  and  crucifixes  destroyed,  and  such  of  the 
stained  glass  and  other  mediaeval  religious  monuments  as  had  not 
already  been  destroyed  by  the  religious  fanatics  of  the  early 
Reformation  were  now  sacrificed  almost  without  exception. 

399.  The  Independents.  —  But  in  all  this  there  was  no  religious 
freedom  or  toleration.  It  simply  established  the  Presbyterian 
organization  and  doctrine  in  place  of  the  regulations  of  the  old 
established  church  as  Laud  had  enforced  them.  Presbyteries 
took  the  place  of  the  bishops;  the  Assembly  took  the  place  of 
the  king  and  High  Commission.  One  party  of  the  Puritans  and 
of  parliament  had  imposed  their  system  upon  all  others,  whether 
the  latter  agreed  with  them  or  not. 

Those  who  did  not  agree  with  them  were  scarcely  in  a  minority, 
for  it  was  a  time  when  men  were  coming  to  have  many  different 
beliefs  in  religious  matters.  This  was  the  period  when  the  founda- 
tions of  the  later  religious  sects  —  Baptists,  Quakers,  Unitarians, 
and  others  —  were  being  laid.  The  belief  was  growing  that  reli- 
gion was  not  a  matter  on  which  men's  minds  should  be  forced. 
"  Brethren,  in  things  of  the  mind  we  look  for  no  compulsion  but 
that  of  light  and  reason,"  said  Cromwell.  Milton  pleaded  for 
toleration  in  religious  belief.  Many  men  claimed  the  right  to  be 
bound  to  no  religious  belief  at  all.  As  one  soldier  said,  "  If  I 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH      447 

should  worship  the  sun  or  moon,  like  the  Persians,  or  the  pewter 
pot  on  the  table,  nobody  has  anything  to  do  with  it." 

There  was  no  more  hope  for  such  liberty  of  conscience  under 
presbyterianism  than  under  episcopacy  or  under  the  papacy. 
Those  who  wished  this  liberty  saw  no  way  of  attaining  it  except 
to  allow  each  congregation  to  organize  itself  as  it  saw  fit.  They 
were  therefore  called  "  Independents."  To  independency  were 
attracted  not  only  those  men  whose  broad  views  were  repelled  by 
the  idea  of  religious  compulsion,  but  many  of  the  officers  of  the 
army,  who,  like  Cromwell,  wished  to  use  and  promote  a  good  sol- 
dier no  matter  what  his  religious  beliefs  might  be. 

400.  The  New  Model  Army.  —  The  two  branches  of  the  Puri- 
tans, Presbyterians  and  Independents,  were  therefore  as  much  in 
opposition  to  each  other  as  churchmen  and  Puritans  had  formerly 
been.  Moreover,  the  Presbyterians  had  obtained  all  the  politi- 
cal and  religious  reforms  they  wanted,  and  they  thought  the  king 
might  be  induced  to  acknowledge  the  system  which  had  now  been 
introduced.  They  dreaded,  besides,  the  growing  power  and  claims 
of  the  Independents.  They  had  become  a  conservative  party,  and 
they  were  anxious  to  bring  the  war  to  an  end  and  to  come  to 
terms  with  the  king.  Several  of  the  higher  officers  of  the  army 
belonged  to  this  party  and  did  not  want  to  push  the  king  too  hard 
or  to  subject  him  to  any  further  defeat.  The  Presbyterians  were 
therefore  a  peace  party. 

The  Independents,  on  the  other  hand,  were  a  war  party.  They 
were  not  content  to  rest  under  Presbyterian  domination  in  church 
matters  and  felt  that  in  political  matters  the  work  was  only  half 
done,  —  that  no  terms  could  be  safely  made  with  Charles  so  long 
as  he  had  an  army  in  the  field.  They  wished  to  continue  the  war 
until  the  king  was  completely  defeated.  To  this  party  Cromwell 
belonged,  and  he  complained  bitterly  of  the  inactivity  of  the 
older  parliamentary  generals.  There  were  enough  men  of  the  same 
opinion  in  parliament  to  carry  out  a  change.  By  their  efforts  a 
new  army  was  constructed,  called  the  "  New  Model,"  to  take 


448  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

the  place  of  the  existing  parliamentary  army.  It  was  somewhat 
smaller  than  the  old  army,  but  was  more  completely  under  the 
control  of  parliament,  more  regularly  paid,  and  better  equipped. 
A  change  of  officers  was  brought  about  by  the  passage  of  the 
"  Self-denying  Ordinance,"  by  which  every  member  of  either 
house  must  within  forty  days  lay  down  any  military  command 
which  he  held.  The  old  officers  resigned  and 
were  thanked  by  parliament  for  their  services. 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  became  commander  in 
chief,  and  within  a  short  time,  notwithstand- 
ing his  membership  in  parliament,  Cromwell 
was  made  second  in  command  with  the  title 
"  Lieutenant  General." 

401.  Defeat  of  the  King  at  Naseby.  — Inde- 
pendents were  more  numerous  in  the  New 
Model  army  and  it  was  filled  with  a  new  vigor 
and  enterprise.  It  soon  showed  what  it  could 
do.  After  a  number  of  minor  engagements 
a  great  battle  was  fought  at  Naseby,  June  14, 
1645.  The  king's  army  was  scattered  and  the 
king  himself  driven  into  flight  accompanied 
only  by  a  small  body  of  horsemen.  Cromwell 
Wooden  Figure  of  an  again  had  the  prmcipal  part  in  the  victory. 

°/fiuerK°Tf  In!r^  Almost  as  injurious  to  the  king  as  the  loss  of 

of  the  New  Model  J 

Ar  the  battle  was  the  capture  by  the  parliamentary 

army  of  his  private  cabinet  containing  copies 
of  the  letters  he  had  recently  written  to  the  queen.  These  showed 
that  while  negotiating  with  parliament  he  was  planning  to  bring 
a  foreign  army  into  England,  and  that  no  promises  which  he  had 
made  could  be  depended  upon.  The  war  went  on  for  some  months 
longer,  but  it  all  went  one  way  now.  In  almost  every  battle  the 
New  Model  army  was  victorious ;  one  after  another  they  captured 
the  castles,  forts,  and  fortified  country  houses  held  for  the  king, 
till  there  was  no  organized  royalist  army  in  the  field,  and  Charles 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH      449 

at  his  headquarters  in  Oxford  had  no  choice  but  to  surrender  in 
some  form.  He  chose  to  give  himself  up  to  the  Scotch  army, 
and  rode  into  their  lines  in  May,  1646.  Soon  afterwards  the  Scots 
handed  the  king  over  to  commissioners  representing  the  English 
parliament,  by  whose  order  he  was  held  in  honorable  imprison- 
ment at  Holmby  House,  Northamptonshire.  The  Scotch  army 
had  its  expenses  paid  by  the  English  parliament  and  marched 
back  to  Scotland. 

402.  Negotiations  with  the  King.  —  From  the  time  of  Charles's 
surrender  a  continuous  series  of  negotiations  was  carried  on 
between  the  king  and  parliament.  Plan  after  plan  was  proposed 
by  one  side  or  the  other,  according  to  which  the  king  should  be 
restored  to  the  throne  and  guarantees  be  given  for  the  Presby- 
terian organization  of  the  church  and  the  liberties  of  parliament. 
But  one  after  another  the  plans  were  refused  either  by  the  king 
or  parliament.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Charles  was  always  hoping 
that  something  would  turn  up  to  prevent  the  necessity  for  his 
giving  way.  He  entered  into  various  secret  negotiations  with  the 
Scots,  the  Irish,  the  French,  and  others,  and  at  the  very  time 
he  professed  to  be  negotiating  with  parliament  as  to  a  plan  for 
reestablishing  the  government  he  was  arranging  to  bring  in  a 
foreign  army  to  overthrow  it. 

Charles  had  never  been  a  man  on  whose  public  faith  any  reli- 
ance could  be  placed.  At  the  very  outset  of  his  reign  he  had 
broken  the  promises  of  his  marriage  treaty  with  the  French. 
When  he  signed  the  Petition  of  Right  he  had  not  intended  to 
keep  it.  When  he  signed  the  bill  providing  that  parliament 
should  not  be  dissolved  except  by  its  own  consent  he  intended 
to  dissolve  it  by  force  as  soon  as  he  got  an  army.  The  duplicity 
of  his  nature  was  made  more  evident  by  the  disclosures  of  the 
cabinet  captured  at  Naseby.  The  full  untrustworthiness  of  his 
character  came  out  still  more  strongly  in  these  negotiations,  and 
it  seemed  impossible  to  bind  him  by  any  conditions  which  he  would 
be  likely  to  keep. 


450  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

403.  The  Second  Civil  War.  —  During  these  discussions  the 
hostility  between  the  Presbyterians  and  the  Independents  was 
approaching  a  culmination.  The  former  had  a  majority  in  parlia- 
ment, the  latter  in  the  army.  The  Presbyterian  majority  in  par- 
liament were  willing  to  agree  to  almost  any  terms  with  the  king 
in  order  to  preserve  the  settlement  which  they  thought  they  had 
reached.  They  dreaded  the  Independents  more  than  they  did 
the  king.  The  Independents  in  parliament  and  in  the  army,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  not  yet  gained  the  liberty  of  conscience  which 
they  wanted,  and  were  not  willing  to  see  the  king  put  back  into 
power  with  so  little  restriction.  Many  of  them  also  were  men  who 
had  risen  lately  from  lower  positions  and  had  ideas  of  more  demo- 
cratic government  than  the  more  aristocratic  Presbyterians  who 
made  up  the  majority  in  parliament.  The  officers  of  the  army 
met  in  a  council  and  discussed  all  these  questions,  and  even  the 
common  soldiers  elected  representatives  from  each  company, 
known  as  "  agitators  "  or  agents,  who  met  and  consulted  on  things 
of  interest  to  the  army.  Parliament  and  the  army  were  therefore 
in  fatal  opposition. 

The  war  being  over,  parliament  tried  to  disband  the  army,  but 
would  not  pay  the  soldiers  the  arrears  of  their  wages  and  refused 
to  pass  an  act  of  indemnity  freeing  them  from  prosecution  for  acts 
done  in  war  time.  The  army  therefore,  June  4,  1647,  refused  to 
be  disbanded,  and  issued  a  declaration  of  its  intention  to  hold 
together  until  a  permanent  peace  and  satisfactory  settlement  of 
the  government  should  be  reached.  Cromwell  during  this  time 
occupied  a  midway  position.  He  was  a  member  of  parliament 
and  at  the  same  time  the  idolized  general  of  the  army.  He  tried 
his  best  to  arrange  terms  which  would  satisfy  king,  parliament,  and 
army,  but  in  vain.  The  army  became  so  suspicious  of  parliament 
that  a  detachment  of  troops  was  sent  to  take  Charles  from  the 
possession  of  the  parliamentary  commissioners  and  retain  him  in 
the  custody  of  the  army.  He  was  kept  successively  at  Newmar- 
ket, Hampton  Court,  Carisbrooke  on  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  other 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH      451 

places.  The  army  then  sent  to  parliament  a  complaint  against 
eleven  of  its  most  prominent  members  on  the  Presbyterian  side, 
and  at  the  same  time  dispatched  a  body  of  troops  to  Westminster 
and  London,  nominally  to  keep  order.  The  accused  members  fled 
to  the  continent.  In  June  and  July,  1648,  feeling  became  so 
intense  that  risings  in  favor  of  the  king  took  place  in  Kent, 
Essex,  Surrey,  Wales,  and  Scotland,  and  Cromwell  and  his  gen- 
erals had,  after  two  years  of  peace,  a  second  civil  war  on  their 
hands.  A  series  of  short  campaigns  by  the  veteran  army,  how- 
ever, soon  put  down  these  risings. 

404.  Pride's  Purge.  — When  parliament  still  continued  to  nego- 
tiate with  the  king,  and  actually  passed  a  resolution  of  recon- 
ciliation with  him,  the  army  finally  lost  all  patience.     General 
Cromwell  and  the  other  leading  officers  who  were  in  the  vicinity 
rode  into  London,  December  6,   1648,  and  a  body  of  soldiers 
under  a  colonel  named  Pride  was  stationed  at  the  door  and  kept 
out  all  members  of  the   House  of  Commons  who  were  known 
to  be  favorable  to  the  king.     This  act,  by  which  one  hundred 
and  forty- three  Presbyterian  members  were  excluded,  is  usually 
described  as  "Pride's  Purge,"  and  of  course  resulted  in  the  Inde- 
pendents having  a  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons.     The 
lords  had  long  ceased  to  exert  any  great  influence  on  proceed- 
ings.    This   remnant   of   the    Long    Parliament,   known    as    the 
"  Rump,"  l  was  no  more  humble  because  of  its  reduced  numbers 
and  dependence  on  the  army.     Within  a  month  its  Independent 
majority  declared  themselves  to  be  the  supreme  power  in  Eng- 
land, since  they  had  been  elected  by  and  represented  the  people. 

405.  The  Trial  and  Execution  of  the  King.  — They  proceeded 
to  appoint  a  "High  Court  of  Justice,"  consisting  of  one  hundred 
and    thirty-five    men,   to  try   the    king  for   high  treason  to  the 
nation.     Many  of  these  refused  to  serve,  but  some  sixty  attended 
in  Westminster   Hall  and   the   king  was  there  brought  to  trial. 
He  refused  to  plead,  on  the  ground  that  no  court  could  try  the 

1  Because  it  was  the  "  sitting  part "  of  parliament. 


452 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


king.  Nevertheless,  after  some  days  of  formal  testimony  and  dis- 
cussion he  was  declared  guilty  of  being  a  "  tyrant,  traitor,  mur- 
derer, and  public  enemy  to  the  good  people  of  this  nation,"  and 
ordered  to  be  executed.  On  January  30,  1649,  ne  was  l£d  through 
a  window  of  his  palace  of  Whitehall  to  the  scaffold  and  there  in 
the  sight  of  the  people  beheaded.  The  House  of  Commons  and 
the  High  Court  of  Justice,  in  their  condemnation  and  execution 
of  the  king,  clung  to  the  forms  of  law  wherever  they  were  able, 
and  strove  to  give  to  the  whole  occurrence  the  appearance  of 

legality ;  but  their 
action  was  in  real- 
ity a  part  of  the 
war.  The  forms 
which  they  fol- 
lowed so  scrupu- 
lously were  never 
intended  to  be 
used  for  any  such 
purpose,  and  what 
the  leaders  were 
doing  was  justifi- 
able not  because 
the  king  was  guilty 
of  treason  but  because  the  period  was  one  of  revolution  and  his 
removal  was  one  of  the  necessary  and  unavoidable  steps  of  the 
revolution. 

406.  Feeling  in  Favor  of  Charles.  — To  many,  probably  to 
most  persons  in  England,  however,  the  beheading  of  the  king 
by  warrant  of  the  House  of  Commons  seemed  mere  murder. 
Through  all  these  later  days  Charles  had  behaved  with  dignity 
and  courage.  As  his  fortunes  went  down  his  personal  demeanor 
rose.  The  good  points  of  his  character  —  his  courage,  his  self- 
control,  his  religious  faith,  his  purity  of  life,  his  devotion  to  his 
family  and  intimate  friends  —  now  showed  themselves  more  clearly, 


Westminster  Hall,  where  Charles  I  was  tried 


GREAT   REBELLION  AND   COMMONWEALTH      453 

while  the  weak  points  of  his  nature  —  his  ignorance  and  obstinacy, 
his  duplicity  and  un truthfulness  —  were  no  longer  prominent.  A 
contemporary  poet  wrote  of  the  death  of  Charles  : 

He  nothing  common  did  or  mean, 
Upon  that  memorable  scene, 

But  bent  his  stately  head 

Down  as  upon  a  bed. 

Shortly  after  the  execution  there  appeared  a  book  called  Eikon 
Basilike^  which  professed  to  contain  the  pious  soliloquies  of  the 
king  during  his  last  few  days.  The  tone  of  resignation  and  con- 
fidence in  the  justice  of  his  cause  shown  in  this  book  likewise 
tended  to  raise  the  king  in  the  people's  estimation.  Scarcely, 
therefore,  had  Charles  been  put  to  death  before  a  revulsion  of 
feeling  set  in,  and  a  vast  number  of  people  who  in  the  king's 
lifetime  had  made  but  languid  efforts  for  his  support  now  mourned 
for  him,  regretted  his  defeat  and  death,  and  dreaded  the  punish- 
ment of  God  for  their  national  sin  in  allowing  his  execution.  A 
glorified  ideal  of  Charles  grew  up,  now  that  he  was  gone,  which 
was  very  different  from  the  unwise,  untrustworthy,  and  unloved 
king  who  had  really  lived  and  reigned.  He  had  a  party  following 
after  his  death  far  more  numerous  and  devoted  than  he  had  ever 
had  during  his  lifetime.  His  eldest  son  Prince  Charles,  who  was 
then  a  fugitive,  was  acknowledged  by  many  in  their  hearts  as  the 
rightful  holder  of  the  crown,  and  hailed  by  his  personal  compan- 
ions as  Charles  II.  Long  afterwards,  when  the  Restoration  gave 
him  actual  possession  of  the  throne,  his  reign  was  officially  dated 
as  beginning  on  the  day  of  his  father's  execution. 

407.  The  Commonwealth. — Whatever  might  be  the  feeling  of 
the  majority  of  the  nation,  there  was  no  weakening  among  the 
men  who  had  led  in  the  war  against  the  king  and  the  moderate 
party.  The  sixty  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  who  still 
held  their  seats  considered  themselves  the  sole  representatives  of 
1  Greek  for  The  King's  Image. 


454  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  people  of  England,  since  they  alone  had  been  chosen  in  regu- 
lar elections,  and  continued  to  call  themselves  the  parliament. 
They  acted  usually  without  consulting  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
quietly  ignored  even  the  wishes  of  the  army  expressed  in  a  docu- 
ment laid  before  them  by  the  council  of  officers.  This  proposal, 
called  the  "  Agreement  of  the  People,"  had  been  drawn  up  by  the 
more  radical  officers  and  the  common  soldiers,  and  provided  for  a 
reorganization  of  the  government  and  the  army  on  a  completely 
democratic  basis.  The  more  practical  men  of  the  army,  like 
Cromwell,  only  partially  approved  of  this  scheme,  and  relying  on 
their  support  the  Rump  Parliament  followed  its  own  plans  with- 
out either  accepting  or  rejecting  the  Agreement  of  the  People. 

It  appointed  a  council  of  state,  consisting  of  forty-one  persons, 
to  exercise  executive  functions.  Then  the  Commons  abolished 
the  office  of  king  and  the  House  of  Lords,  declaring  the  latter  to 
be  "  useless  and  dangerous."  England  was  thus  made  a  republic, 
and  on  May  19,  1649,  parliament  declared  "the  people  of 
England  to  be  a  Commonwealth  and  Free  State,  by  the  supreme 
authority  of  this  nation."  l  Back  of  the  council  of  state  and 
parliament  in  this  new  government  was  the  army,  now  a  veteran 
and  ever-victorious  body,  under  its  general  Fairfax  and  its  lieu- 
tenant general  Cromwell.  The  army  still  took  great  interest 
and  part  in  political  affairs  through  the  organization  of  its  officers 
and  the  representatives  of  the  privates,  and  for  the  present  at 
least  was  tolerably  well  satisfied  with  the  Commonwealth  as  a 
form  of  government.  Fairfax  and  Cromwell  were  made  members 
of  the  council  of  state  and  served  as  a  bond  between  parliament 
and  army. 

1  The  events  here  described  can  perhaps  be  made  more  clear  by  dividing 
them  into  the  following  periods  : 

1629-1640,  Personal  Government  of  Charles  I. 
1640-1642,  Reforming  Period  of  the  Long  Parliament. 
1642-1649,  the  Civil  War. 
1649-1653,  the  Commonwealth. 
1653-1660,  the  Protectorate. 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH    455 


408.  Conquest  of  Ireland  and  Scotland. — The  Commonwealth 
proved  to  be  a  vigorous  and  warlike  government.  On  the  exe- 
cution of  the  king  Ireland  declared  for  Charles  II,  and  Catholics 
and  royalist  Protestants  combined  to  drive  out  the  representatives 
of  parliament.  An  army  was  sent  over  in  August,  1649,  and  Ire- 
land was  soon  more  thoroughly  conquered  than  it  had  ever  been 
before.  Cromwell,  and  after  his  return  to  England  in  1650,  his 
son-in-law,  Ireton,  who  succeeded  to  the  command,  carried  their 
troops  through  every  part  of  the  island,  captured  cities,  battered 


Seal  of  the  Commonwealth,  1651,  showing  England  and 
Ireland,  and  Parliament 

down  castles,  and  confiscated  the  lands  of  rebels,  Catholics,  and 
native  Irish.  By  1652  Ireland  was  completely  in  the  power  of 
the  Commonwealth. 

In  1650  Scotland  also  acknowledged  Prince  Charles  when  he 
came  there  and  agreed  to  accept  the  presbyterian  system.  Par- 
liament ordered  the  main  part  of  the  army  to  Scotland,  and  when 
Fairfax  refused  to  go,  on  the  ground  that  the  Scots  had  a  right  to 
take  Charles  for  their  king  if  they  wanted  to,  displaced  him  and 
made  Cromwell  general  of  the  whole  army.  In  September,  1650, 
he  defeated  one  Scottish  army  at  Dunbar  and  captured  Edinburgh. 
A  year  later  another  Scotch  army  was  formed,  with  which  Charles 
pushed  into  England,  hoping  for  a  royalist  rising.  Cromwell 


456  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

hastened  after  them,  and  September  3,  1651,  the  anniversary  of 
Dunbar,  overtook  and  crushed  them  at  Worcester.  The  military 
power  of  the  Commonwealth  was  now  complete.  No  armed 
resistance  within  the  British  Isles  was  any  longer  possible. 

409.  The  Navigation  Acts  and  the  Dutch  War. — Outside  of 
England,  however,  a  warlike  struggle  was  drawing  on  and  could 
no  longer  be  avoided.  England  and  Holland  were  both  rising 
commercial  nations.  English  merchants  since  the  time  of  Eliza- 
beth had  been  pushing  their  commerce  into  every  part  of  the 
world,  but  everywhere  they  went  they  found  the  Dutch  just  ahead 
of  them.  The  enterprise  and  capital  of  the  Dutch  merchants, 
the  skill  of  Dutch  shipbuilders  and  sailors,  the  support  given  to 
commercial  ventures  by  the  government  of  the  Netherlands  since 
they  had  won  their  independence  from  Spain  had  made  them  the 
most  successful  traders  of  Europe.  On  the  continent,  in  the 
East  Indies,  in  America,  and  even  in  England  itself,  English  mer- 
chants had  to  meet  the  competition  of  the  Dutch,  and  as  a  result 
disputes  between  the  merchants  and  between  the  two  governments 
were  constant.  These  included  political  as  well  as  trade  disputes. 
The  council  of  state,  for  instance,  tried  to  force  the  Dutch  gov- 
ernment to  expel  Prince  Charles,  who  was  living  in  Holland  in 
exile,  but  they  were  repulsed  and  protection  was  still  extended  to 
the  prince. 

In  1651  the  English  government  determined  to  drive  the  Dutch 
merchants  from  that  one  field  of  commerce  over  which  it  had 
entire  control.  This  was  the  carrying  trade l  between  England  and 

1  The  carrying  trade  isjthe  business  of  taking  cargoes  from  one  foreign 
port  to  another  for  hire.  Dutch  vessels,  for  instance,  took  goods  from  the 
East  or  West  Indies  or  from  German,  French,  and  Italian  ports  to  England, 
and  then  took  English  goods  to  these  or  other  countries,  just  as  a  modern 
"  tramp  steamer  "  seeks  a  cargo  wherever  it  can  be  obtained  and  takes  it  to 
whatever  port  it  may  be  consigned.  Vessels  engaged  in  exporting  the  prod- 
ucts of  their  own  country  and  importing  goods  into  their  own  country  from 
abroad  are  not  spoken  of  as  in  the  carrying  trade,  but  as  in  the  export 
and  import  trade. 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH      457 

other  countries.  Parliament  therefore  passed  in  that  year  a  law 
which  has  since  been  known  as  the  first  of  the  "  Navigation  Acts." 

According  to  this  law,  goods  from  Asia,  Africa,  or  America  could 
be  brought  into  England  and  its  possessions  only  in  vessels  owned 
and  manned  by  Englishmen.  Goods  from  the  continent  of  Europe 
could  be  brought  into  England  only  in  vessels  belonging  to  the 
country  in  which  the  goods  were  produced.  This  left  to  the  Dutch, 
so  far  as  England  was  concerned,  only  the  trade  in  the  few  prod- 
ucts of  their  own  country  which  were  in  demand  in  England  or 
her  colonies,  depriving  them  of  the  profitable  business  of  bring- 
ing goods  from  distant  parts  of  the  world  or  from  other  European 
countries  to  England.  The  Dutch  government  protested  against 
this  law,  and  the  old  disputes  became  at  the  same  time  so  much 
more  bitter  that  in  1652  war  was  declared  between  the  two  nations. 
A  naval  struggle  followed  in  which  successive  battles  were  waged 
in  the  Channel  and  the  North  Sea,  resulting  mainly  in  favor  of  the 
English.  In  this  naval  war  Blake,  one  of  the  old  parliamentary 
generals,  though  he  had  probably  never  been  at  sea  till  after  he 
was  fifty  years  old,  proved  himself  an  even  abler  naval  than  a  mili- 
tary commander.  After  two  years  of  war  a  treaty  was  signed  in 
1654  by  which  Holland  agreed  to  recognize  the  Navigation  Act 
and  to  show  proper  marks  of  respect  to  English  vessels  when  they 
were  met  near  the  English  coasts. 

410.  Expulsion  of  the  Long  Parliament  by  Cromwell.  —  Not- 
withstanding the  military  and  naval  successes  of  the  Common- 
wealth, parliament  was  exceedingly  unpopular.  In  1653  the  Long 
Parliament  had  been  sitting  for  thirteen  years  without  reelection, 
and  there  was  a  widespread  feeling  that  it  should  now  dissolve 
itself  and  allow  new  elections  to  take  place.  This  desire  was 
especially  strong  in  the  army,  and  Cromwell  and  other  officers 
frequently  urged  parliament  to  give  way  to  new  men.  Its  mem- 
bers were,  however,  unwilling  to  dissolve.  They  believed,  and 
rightly,  that  a  freely  elected  parliament  would  immediately  call  in 
Charles  II  and  that  the  work  of  the  last  ten  years  would  be  undone. 


458 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


If  the  republic  was  to  be  maintained,  some  control  must  be  exer- 
cised over  the  choice  of  new  members.  No  satisfactory  plan  was 
settled  upon,  and  in  the  course  of  the  discussions  there  were  fre- 
quent disputes  between  parliament  and  the  officers  of  the  army 
almost  as  bitter  as  in  the  old  days  when  there  was  a  Presbyterian 
majority  in  parliament  hostile  to  the  army. 

By  this  time  Oliver  Cromwell  had  become  far  the  most  prom- 
inent and  influential  man  in  England.  His  progress  from  an 
unnoticed  member  of  parliament  and  a  mere  colonel  of  a  cavalry 

regiment  up  to  the  leadership  in  the 
army  and  in  the  council  of  state  has 
been  described.  His  character  and 
abilities  were  such  as  inevitably  to 
transform  this  leadership  into  actual 
rule.  Cromwell  was  tall  and  im- 
pressive in  demeanor,  with  a  coun- 
tenance rugged  but  of  great  dignity. 
He  was  fond  of  hunting  and  other 
vigorous  exercises,  but  no  less  fond 
of  music,  art,  and  learning.  His  re- 
ligious nature  was  deep  and  sincere. 
He  had  an  overwhelming  sense  of 
personal  responsibility  and  of  God's 
part  in  all  the  events  of  daily  life. 
Each  step  that  he  took  he  believed  he  was  taking  because  he  was 
required  to  do  so  by  religious  duty.  His  gifts  of  mind  were  great. 
In  military  matters  he  showed  real  genius  and  seldom  made  a 
mistake.  In  statesmanship  he  was  somewhat  slow  and  unimagi- 
native but  clear-sighted  and  determined.  He  was  liberal-minded, 
inclined  to  toleration,  and  on  the  whole  kindly.  He  had  all  the 
powers  of  mind  which  the  Stuart  sovereigns  lacked,  and  if  he  had 
been  born  a  king,  instead  of  being  drawn  step  by  step  into  the 
position  of  a  revolutionary  despot,  he  might  have  guided  England 
happily  through  the  crisis  of  the  seventeenth  century. 


Oliver  Cromwell 


GREAT   REBELLION  AND   COMMONWEALTH      459 

Instead  of  this  it  was  his  unfortunate  destiny  to  destroy  the  last 
trace  of  legality  in  the  existing  government.  Cromwell's  mind 
was  above  all  practical.  He  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
remaining  members  of  the  Long  Parliament  were  incompetent  and 
obstinately  determined  to  retain  their  position  and  power.  When, 
therefore,  he  was  informed  one  morning  that  they  were  about  to 
pass  a  bill  for  the  perpetuation  of  their  own  membership  in  the 
next  parliament  he  lost  patience,  and,  taking  some  troops  with  him 
as  far  as  the  lobby  of  the  parliament  house,  went  into  the  session. 
After  listening  for  some  time  to  the  debate,  he  rose,  made  some 
remarks  on  the  subject,  then  began  to  complain  of  the  members, 
and  with  rising  excitement  stamped  on  the  floor,  called  in  the 
soldiers,  and  drove  the  members  out.  He  ordered  the  mace  to 
be  removed  by  one  of  the  soldiers,  saying,  "What  shall  we  do 
with  this  bauble?  There,  take  it  away."  He  then  ordered  the 
door  to  be  locked,  put  the  key  into  his  pocket,  and  went  back  to 
the  palace  of  Whitehall,  which  as  general  of  the  army  he  was  now 
occupying.  The  council  of  state  was  declared  by  Cromwell  to  be 
dissolved. 

411.  The  Little  Parliament. — There  was  very  little  left  now 
in  the  nature  of  government.  King,  House  of  Lords,  House  of 
Commons  had  all  been  destroyed.  There  was  no  authority  left 
but  that  of  the  army,  represented  by  its  officers  and  especially 
by  Cromwell,  who  was  in  supreme  command  of  all  the  military 
forces.  Cromwell  did  not  wish  to  be  a  dictator.  He  only  wished 
that  government  should  be  carried  on  wisely  and  efficiently. 
With  a  provisional  council  of  state,  therefore,  appointed  by  him- 
self, he  undertook  to  draw  up  a  list  of  men  who  should  fill  the 
place  of  parliament.  Nominations  were  asked  for  from  the  Inde- 
pendent ministers  throughout  the  country,  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  men,  known  for  their  religious  activity  and  their 
prominence  in  the  contest  with  the  king  and  the  moderate  party, 
were  selected  and  given  commissions  signed  by  Cromwell.  They 
met  a  few  weeks  after  the  dissolution  of  the  Long  Parliament. 


460  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

This  assembly  is  often  called  the  "  Little  Parliament,"  or  the 
"  Nominated  Parliament."  The  fanciful  name  of  one  of  the 
members  from  London  led  to  its  being  called  at  the  time  "  Praise- 
God  Barebone's  Parliament."  The  experiment  was  not  a  success. 
Cromwell  and  the  officers  tried  to  keep  in  the  background  and 
leave  government  to  the  new  assembly.  But  its  inexperienced 
and  unpractical  members  introduced  radical  reforms  and  changes 
in  all  directions  when  the  great  need  of  the  hour  was  some  degree 
of  stability  and  cessation  of  change.  They  aroused  discontent  and 
distrust  everywhere.  Among  their  number  and  in  the  army  and 
community  were  all  kinds  of  fanatics  and  extremists  who  urged 
them  on.  The  general  break-up  of  old  ways  had  given  origin  to 
a  great  number  and  variety  of  religious  sects,  some  moderate  and 
reasonable,  others  of  the  most  extravagant  character.  The  begin- 
nings of  such  societies  as  the  Baptists,  Quakers,  and  Unitarians 
were  in  this  period  ;  but  there  were  also  "  Fifth  Monarchy  Men," 
who  believed  that  the  biblical  prophecy  of  the  reign  of  the  saints 
was  about  to  be  fulfilled  and  that  they  were  the  saints ;  "  Lev- 
ellers," who  wished  to  institute  a  system  of  absolute  equality  in 
rank,  property,  and  political  position;  "Muggletonians,"  "Fami- 
lists,"  and  other  curious  sects. 

The  actual  reforms  of  the  Nominated  Parliament  were  not 
extreme,  but  there  was  a  constant  dread  of  their  becoming  so. 
A  large  part  of  their  own  number  became  convinced  that  they 
could  not  carry  on  the  government.  These  men  at  an  early  morn- 
ing session  on  December  n,  1653,  carried  a  resolution  dissolving 
their  assembly  and  putting  their  authority  in  the  hands  of  the  lord 
general,  Oliver  Cromwell,  whom  they  looked  upon  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  power,  order,  and  practical  moderation. 

412.  The  Protectorate. — Again  there  was  no  government  in 
England  but  that  of  the  general  with  the  army  at  his  back.  The 
higher  officers  with  his  agreement  now  drew  up  a  written  consti- 
tution for  England,  known  as  the  "  Instrument  of  Government." 
It  gave  the  principal  power  to  a  lord  protector,  who  was  of  course 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND    COMMONWEALTH      461 


to  be  Cromwell  himself.  He  was  to  be  aided  and  at  the  same 
time  restrained  by  a  council,  and  a  parliament  was  to  meet  once 
in  every  three  years.  All  adherents  of  the  late  king  were  to  be 
excluded  from  voting  and  from  membership  in  parliament.  In 
December,  1653,  there  was  a  ceremony  in  which  Cromwell  was 
placed  in  a  chair  of  state  and  invited  to  take  the  office  of  "  Lord 
Protector  of  the  Commonwealth  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ire- 
land." Oaths  were  taken  and  given,  and  from  this  time  forward 
much  the  same  ceremony  was  observed  towards  him  as  had  been 
shown  toward  the  king.  He  called  himself  "Oliver"  in  all  state 
papers  and  was  king  in  all  but  name.1  Two  years  later  he  was 
asked  by  parlia- 
ment to  take  the 
title  of  king  but 
he  refused.  In 
fact  his  real  pow- 
ers were  more 
than  those  of  a 
king.  He  was 
a  dictator  with  a 
powerful  and  de- 
voted army  at 
his  disposal.  However  much  he  may  have  wanted  to  restore  the 
power  of  parliament  and  of  the  people,  he  could  not  do  so  in 
the  confused  circumstances  of  the  time  without  withdrawing  from 
affairs  altogether.  This  he  would  have  felt  to  be  a  mere  aban- 
donment of  duty,  since  he  believed  in  all  sincerity  that  he  was 
called  and  chosen  by  God  for  the  work  in  which  he  was  engaged. 
For  the  remaining  five  years  of  his  life  he  was  the  real  ruler  of 
England.  No  government  of  England  was  possible  just  then  but 

1  "  Noll "  and  "  Old  Noll  "  were  nicknames  commonly  applied  to  Oliver 
by  the  royalists.  "  Crummel  "  was  the  popular  pronunciation  of  his  name, 
as  in  the  line. 

Oh  for  an  hour  of  Crummel  and  the  Lord. 


Seal  of  the  Protectorate,  1653,  showing  Arms  of 
England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  Oliver 
Cromwell 


462  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

the  government  of  some  one  man.  The  struggle  of  the  Long  Par- 
liament with  the  king  had  developed  into  a  great  military  conflict 
in  which  power  necessarily  came  into  the  hands  of  the  strongest 
party.  This  party  was  the  army,  and  Oliver  was  the  soul  and 
representative  of  the  army. 

413.  Policy  of  the  Protectorate.  —  In  foreign  affairs  the  ensuing 
years  formed  a  period  of  greatness  and  brilliant  success  for  Eng- 
land. Cromwell  made  treaties  with  the  Dutch  and  the  French, 
gaining  advantages  which  neither  James  nor  Charles  had  been  able 
to  secure.  He  forced  the  French  government  to  spare  the  Protest- 
ants in  Savoy,  and  secured  protection  and  indemnity  for  English 
merchants  in  the  Mediterranean.  The  English  fleet  became  as 
famous  and  as  successful  as  the  army.  He  made  war  on  Spain  and 
the  army  gained  some  victories  in  Europe,  while  the  fleet  captured 
the  silver  vessels  from  America,  destroyed  a  Spanish  fleet,  and 
seized  Jamaica  in  the  West  Indies. 

In  England  itself,  however,  there  was  constant  trouble.  The 
Protector  had  frequent  quarrels  with  his  parliaments.  There  was 
much  opposition  to  him  both  from  those  who  favored  the  king 
and  the  old  church  and  from  those  who  wished  to  introduce  a 
more  democratic  government  and  still  further  religious  changes. 
More  than  one  plot  to  murder  him  was  discovered.  There  was 
also  difficulty  in  raising  enough  money  for  the  expenses  of  the 
government  now  that  the  country  was  at  war  again.  To  meet 
these  difficulties  the  Protector  divided  England  into  eleven  mili- 
tary districts,  at  the  head  of  each  of  which  was  placed  a  major 
general  with  almost  arbitrary  powers.  In  the  intervals  of  the  sit- 
ting of  parliament,  taxation  was  imposed  by  the  mere  will  of  the 
Protector  and  council,  and  collected  by  the  major  generals.  Thus 
the  country  was  under  what  was  practically  a  military  government, 
which  has  always  been  the  most  hated  of  all  forms  of  government. 
Notwithstanding  the  liberal  sentiments  of  Cromwell,  the  party 
which  had  brought  him  into  power  was  a  rigidly  Puritan  party, 
which  insisted  on  ascetic  religious  customs  that  bore  hardly  on 


GREAT   REBELLION  AND   COMMONWEALTH      463 

the  great  number  of  the  people.  Earnest,  therefore,  as  were  the 
efforts  and  desires  of  Cromwell  and  his  supporters  to  give  Eng- 
land a  good  and  acceptable  government,  the  hearts  of  the  people 
turned  more  and  more  back  to  the  old  ways,  and  it  became 
clearer  and  clearer  that  the  task  undertaken  by  them  was  a  hope- 
less one. 

In  the  summer  of  1658  Oliver  sickened  and  died.  He  was 
saddened  by  the  apparent  failure  of  his  work,  by  the  troubles 
hanging  over  his  country,  and  by  losses  in  his  own  family  circle. 
His  strong  religious  nature  showed  itself  on  his  deathbed  as  at  all 
other  periods  of  his  life.  In  one  of  his  last  prayers  he  implored 
favor  for  the  people  in  these  words  :  "  Thou  hast  made  me,  though 
very  unworthy,  a  mean  instrument  to  do  them  some  good,  and 
Thee  service ;  and  many  of  them  have  set  too  high  a  value  upon 
me,  though  others  wish  and  would  be  glad  of  my  death.  Pardon 
such  a  desire  to  trample  on  the  dust  of  a  poor  worm,  for  they  are 
Thy  people  too ;  and  pardon  the  folly  of  this  short  prayer,  even 
for  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  give  us  a  good  night,  if  it  be  Thy 
pleasure.  Amen." 

Cromwell  was  a  sincere  and  devoted  laborer  for  the  good  of  the 
people.  His  high  position  and  great  powers  were  forced  upon 
him  by  the  necessities  of  the  time.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest 
men  in  English  history  and  one  of  the  greatest  military  command- 
ers in  all  history.  His  funeral  took  place  with  great  pomp  and 
all  the  ceremonies  usually  reserved  for  royalty.  He  was  buried  in 
Westminster  Abbey  in  the  presence  of  the  highest  nobles  and  the 
representatives  of  foreign  governments. 

414.  End  of  the  Protectorate.  —  If  Oliver  Cromwell  could  with 
difficulty  fill  the  office  of  Protector,  it  was  hardly  likely  that  any 
one  else  would  be  more  successful.  Certainly  his  son  Richard, 
who  by  his  appointment  succeeded  him,  was  not  able  to  do  so. 
He  was  neither  a  Puritan  nor  a  soldier,  and  after  less  than  a  year, 
which  was  constantly  filled  with  disputes  with  the  army,  he  found 
his  position  untenable  and  abdicated.  The  Protectorate  now 


464  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

practically  came  to  an  end  and  the  officers  of  the  army  invited 
the  survivors  of  the  Long  Parliament  to  come  together  again. 

There  were  a  few  months  more  of  confusion  till  parliament, 
under  pressure  from  General  Monk,  head  of  one  division  of  the 
army,  at  last  agreed  to  dissolve  itself  and  to  leave  the  destinies 
of  England  to  a  new  parliament  to  be  freely  elected  in  its  place. 

415.  Summary  of  the  Period  1640-1660. — Thus  the  Long 
Parliament  —  which  had  been  called  by  Charles  in  1640,  had 
declared  war  against  him  in  1642,  put  him  to  death  in  1649, 
been  itself  ejected  by  Cromwell  in  1653,  and  again  restored  by 
the  army  in  1659  —  came  at  last  in  1660  to  an  end,  according 
to  the  act  passed  in  its  first  year,  by  its  own  consent.  It  had 
begun  as  a  reforming  body  and  within  the  first  year  and  a  half 
of  its  existence  had  changed  the  system  of  absolute  government 
of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  to  a  strictly  limited  monarchy.  But  this 
period  of  reform  had  been  followed  by  civil  war,  by  the  formation 
of  a  republic,  and  finally  by  its  own  overthrow  and  the  military 
rule  of  Cromwell  and  the  army.  Now  every  one  knew  that  the 
new  parliament  would  call  back  the  king.  The  period  of  the 
Commonwealth  had  been  a  time  of  great  deeds,  high  ideals,  and 
strong  feelings,  but  they  had  led  to  no  permanent  and  satisfactory 
settlement  of  the  form  of  government.  The  nation  was  tired 
and  sick  of  military  rule  and  of  political  change.  The  people 
wanted  to  be  ruled  by  civil  authority  and  they  wanted  a  settled 
government.  They  longed  to  return  to  the  old  established  ways 
and  institutions  that  had  existed  before  the  feverish  excitement 
and  rapid  changes  of  the  civil  war  and  the  Commonwealth. 

General  Reading.  —  Most  of  this  period  is  covered  in  full  by  GARDINER, 
History  of  England  from  1603  to  1642,  vols.  9  and  10;  History  of  the  Great 
Civil  War,  4  vols. ;  and  History  of  the  Commonwealth,  3  vols.  His  volume 
The  First  Two  Stuarts  and  the  Puritan  Revolution  (Epochs  of  History)  is 
the  best  short  work  on  the  period.  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  viii,  sects. 
6-10.  Three  admirable  histories  of  the  civil  war  and  the  Commonwealth, 
MORLEY,  Cromwell;  ROOSEVELT,  Cromwell;  and  FIRTH,  Cromwell  (Heroes 


GREAT   REBELLION   AND   COMMONWEALTH     465 

of  the  Nations),  are  given  in  the  form  of  biographies.  FIRTH,  Cromwell's 
Army,  is  a  very  interesting  book.  CARLYLE,  Oliver  Cromwell's  Letters  and 
Speeches,  is  a  standard  work  of  great  importance.  MACAULAY,  Milton. 
GARDINER,  Cromwell's  Place  in  History. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  documents  are  very  fully  given  in  GAR- 
DINER, Select  Documents  of  the  Puritan  Revolution,  1640-1660;  and  almost 
equally  so  in  ADAMS  and  STEPHENS,  Select  Documents,  Nos.  195-220. 
KENDALL,  Source-Book,  Nos.  76-89,  includes  a  number  of  interesting 
extracts  from  contemporary  writers.  Evelyn's  Diary  is  a  valuable  record 
of  a  contemporary  royalist.  The  following  numbers  of  the  Old  South  Leaf- 
lets are  valuable  illustrations  for  this  period :  No.  24,  The  Grand  Remon- 
strance;  No.  26,  The  Agreement  of  the  People  ;  No.  27,  The  Instrument  of 
Government ;  No.  61,  Pym's  Speech  against  Strafford ;  Nos.  28  and  62, 
Two  Speeches  by  Cromwell ;  No.  63,  MILTON,  A  Free  Commonwealth. 
HENDERSON,  Sidelights  on  English  History,  contains  much  that  is  useful 
here,  but  is  large  and  expensive. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  SCOTT,  Legend  of  Montrose  and  Woodstock; 
SHORTHOUSE,  John  Ingle s ant ;  Mrs.  CHARLES,  The  Draytons  and  Daven- 
ants  ;  AYTOUN,  Lays  of  the  Scottish  Cavaliers  ;  and  BROWNING,  Strafford, 
are  fair  illustrations  of  the  times. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  The  Trial  of  Charles,  LEE,  Source-Book  of  Eng- 
lish History,  Nos.  160-163;  (2)  the  Character  of  Strafford,  ROBERT 
BROWNING,  Strafford ;  (3)  Cavalier  and  Puritan  Poetry,  Miss  BAKER  and 
Miss  COWAN,  English  History  told  by  English  Poets,  pp.  317-340;  (4)  the 
Trial  and  Execution  of  Strafford,  GREEN,  Short  History  of  the  English 
People,  chap,  viii,  sect.  6 ;  (5)  the  Early  Career  of  Cromwell,  ibid.,  sect.  7 ; 

(6)  the  Expulsion  of  the  Long  Parliament  by  Cromwell,  ibid.,  sect.  8 ; 

(7)  the  Two  Parties  in  the  Civil  War,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  IV, 
pp.  218-226;  (8)  the  Military  Equipment  for  the  Civil  War,  ibid.,  pp.  226- 
239!  (9)  Women  in  the  Civil  War,  ibid.,  pp.  315-320;  (10)  the  New  Sects 
of  the  Commonwealth  Period,  GOOCH,  Democratic  Ideas  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE  RESTORATION  AND  THE  REVOLUTION  OF    1688 
1660-1689 

416.  The  Declaration  of  Breda.  —  Five  days  after  the  new  par- 
liament met  it  received  a  message  from  Charles,  commonly  called 
the  "  Declaration  of  Breda,"  because  he  had  signed  it  at  Breda  in 
Holland,  where  he  was  in  exile.  In  this  declaration  Charles  offered 
a  general  pardon  to  all  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  rebellion, 
except  such  as  should  be  specially  exempted  from  pardon  by  par- 
liament. He  also  agreed  not  to  disturb  the  owners  of  estates  con- 
fiscated from  royalists,  to  approve  the  payment  of  the  arrears  of 
wages  owed  to  the  soldiers,  and  to  consent  to  any  bill  which  parlia- 
ment was  willing  to  pass  in  favor  of  liberty  of  conscience.  By  his 
voluntary  acknowledgment  of  parliamentary  powers  Charles  showed 
that  he  had  given  up  his  father's  claim  to  rule  without  parliament. 

The  declaration  was  received  with  universal  gratification,  and  a 
resolution  was  passed  the  same  day,  May  i,  1660,  declaring  that 
"  according  to  the  ancient  and  fundamental  laws  of  this  kingdom, 
the  government  is  and  ought  to  be  by  King,  Lords,  and  Com- 
mons." If  this  were  so,  the  sooner  the  king  came  back  to  take 
part  in  the  government  the  better.  Three  weeks  afterwards 
Charles  II  landed  at  Dover  and  hastened  to  London  amidst 
general  expressions  of  welcome.  He  took  up  his  residence  at 
Whitehall  palace,  swore  to  observe  the  Great  Charter,  the  Petition 
of  Right,  and  other  important  statutes,  and  gave  legal  sanction 
to  the  existing  parliament,1  which  had  been  elected  on  the  sum- 
mons only  of  the  preceding  parliament,  not  of  the  king. 

1  Such  a  parliament  is  called  a  "  convention." 
466 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION   OF   1688     467 


The  new  king  was  just  thirty  years  of  age.  He  was  active, 
handsome,  and  witty.  He  was  quicker  and  more  farseeing  than 
his  father.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  indolent,  pleasure-loving, 
and  selfish.  He  had  not  his  father's  sense  of  duty  or  his  willing- 
ness to  make  sacrifices  for  what  he  thought  right.  Therefore, 
although  he  might  try  to  outwit  or  deceive  or  neglect  parliament, 
if  a  contest  should  arise  he  would  be  pretty  sure  to  give  way  where 
his  father  would  have  fought  to  the  bitter  end.  Charles  is  reported 
to  have  said  that  whatever  happened  he  would  not  go  on  his  trav- 
els again,  which  could  only  mean  that 
in  a  trial  of  strength  with  parliament  he 
would  always  give  way  rather  than  carry 
things  to  their  last  extremity.  There 
were  better  reasons  for  the  moderation 
of  Charles  II  than  mere  indolence. 
Although  the  Commonwealth  had  fallen, 
yet  no  one  could  ever  afterwards  forget 
that  a  king  had  been  resisted,  conquered, 
deposed,  and  executed.  Experience  had 
proved  that,  in  a  final  test  of  strength, 
power  was  in  the  hands  of  parliament. 

417.  The  Action  of  Parliament.  — The 
Declaration  of  Breda  had  mentioned  four 

points,  —  confiscated  estates,  the  army,  amnesty,  and  religion. 
Parliament  settled  the  first  three  of  these  promptly.  Estates  which 
had  been  actually  confiscated  from  the  king  and  the  church  were 
returned,  but  the  lands  which  royalists  had  been  forced  to  sell 
by  the  harsh  laws  of  the  Commonwealth  were  confirmed  to  their 
new  purchasers.  Many  of  those  who  had  stood  by  the  king  through 
all  his  ill  fortune  were  bitterly  disappointed  at  not  regaining  their 
land  now  that  Charles  had  returned  to  his  own. 

Money  was  appropriated  for  the  payment  of  the  wages  of  the 
soldiers,  and  the  army  was  then  disbanded.  The  return  of  these 
soldiers  of  the  New  Model  quietly  to  their  homes,  after  fifteen 


Charles  II 


468  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

years  of  victory  and  power,  shows  of  what  stuff  it  was  made. 
This  was  an  age  when  armies  were  often  merely  licensed  plun- 
derers, and  to  disband  an  army  meant  to  let  loose  on  the  land 
thousands  of  desperate  men.  Yet  Oliver's  soldiers  were  soon 
absorbed  again  into  the  community  and  known  only  as  good 
tradesmen,  artisans,  or  farmers. 

An  act  of  indemnity  or  pardon  for  recent  occurrences  was 
passed,  but  with  a  long  list  of  exceptions.  Many  men  not  in- 
cluded in  the  general  pardon  were  forced  to  go  into  exile  for  the 
rest  of  their  lives.  Others  were  fined  and  imprisoned,  and  thir- 
teen "  regicides,"  as  those  were  called  who  had  sat  upon  the  High 
Court  of  Justice  and  voted  for  the  death  of  Charles,  were  hanged, 
drawn,  and  quartered  with  all  the  old  barbarous  accompaniments 
of  death  for  treason.  The  same  punishment  was  also  inflicted 
upon  Sir  Harry  Vane,  who  was  not  a  regicide  but  had  been  an  in- 
fluential member  of  the  Long  Parliament  through  its  whole  career. 
An  unworthy  revenge  followed  upon  even  those  great  men  of  the 
Commonwealth  who  were  already  dead  at  the  time  of  the  Resto- 
ration. The  bodies  of  the  great  Protector,  Ireton,  his  second  in 
command  in  the  army,  and  Bradshaw,  the  president  of  the  High 
Court  of  Justice,  all  of  whom  had  been  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  were  dug  up,  hung  in  their  shrouds,  and  then  thrown  into 
a  pit  outside  the  abbey.  The  bodies  of  Pym,  the  great  orator, 
Blake,  the  great  naval  commander,  and  others  were  likewise 
removed  from  the  abbey  and  thrown  into  the  same  pit. 

Some  of  the  old  subjects  of  quarrel  between  king  and  parlia- 
ment were  now  settled  by  abolishing  all  feudal  payments  owed  to 
the  king.  To  make  up  for  this  royal  loss  of  revenue  a  new  tax 
was  laid  on  malt  and  some  other  articles  of  common  use,  which 
with  tonnage  and  poundage  gave  a  sufficient  income  to  the  king 
for  all  the  usual  needs  of  government.  The  abolition  of  feudal 
tenures  was  to  the  special  advantage  of  the  large  landowners  who 
were  represented  in  parliament.  They  freed  themselves  in  this 
way  from  old  and  vexatious  payments  to  the  crown,  while  the 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION    OF   1688     469 

new  tax  was  paid  not  especially  by  them  but  by  all  classes  of  the 
people. 

The  religious  question  was  a  more  difficult  one,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  king's  offer  of  toleration,  was  brought  no  nearer 
settlement  than  it  had  been  before.  The  Convention  Parliament 
represented  those  who  had  suffered  from  the  heavy  hand  of  the 
Puritan  parliament  and  the  Puritan  army.  Therefore  although 
many  of  them,  perhaps  a  majority,  were  Presbyterians,  yet  they 
were  so  anxious  to  prevent  a  return  to  the  excesses  of  the  Com- 
monwealth that  they  were  afraid  to  stand  out  for  religious  reforms. 
At  first  they  advocated  a  plan  by  which  there  should  be  bishops 
with  powers  much  limited  by  the  clergy  of  the  diocese.  When  the 
Anglicans  opposed  this  they  gave  way,  followed  the  guidance  of 
the  Cavaliers,  and  allowed  them  to  bring  back  episcopacy  and  the 
prayer  book. 

The  next  parliament,  known  as  the  "  Cavalier  Parliament," 
which  met  in  1661,  having  been  elected  during  the  excitement 
of  the  Restoration,  was  even  more  opposed  to  everything  like 
Puritanism  or  toleration  of  different  sects  in  the  church. 

Various  efforts  were  made  outside  of  parliament  to  reach  a 
settlement  of  the  church  which  would  satisfy  both  Puritans  and 
high  churchmen.  A  conference  between  certain  bishops  and 
some  of  the  Presbyterian  ministers  was  held  at  the  Savoy  palace, 
similar  to  that  held  before  James  at  Hampton  Court.  Compro- 
mises were  discussed  but  no  agreement  could  be  reached.  The 
king,  who  felt  attached  to  the  Roman  Catholic  church  and  later 
became  secretly  a  member  of  it,  was  in  favor  of  general  tolera- 
tion for  all  alike,  whether  they  were  Catholics,  Episcopalians, 
Presbyterians,  or  members  of  the  new  sects.  This  proposal, 
because  it  included  the  sects,  was  hateful  to  Presbyterians  and 
Episcopalians,  and  because  it  included  Roman  Catholics  was 
hateful  to  all  except  the  few  members  of  that  body.  All  plans 
failed  one  after  another,  the  majority  in  parliament  was  given  its 
way,  and  the  church  was  reestablished  in  its  old  form. 


470  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

418.  The  Dissenters.  —  In  1661  appointments  were  made  to 
all  the  old  bishoprics,  and  in  1662  an  act  of  uniformity  was 
passed,  requiring  every  clergyman  and  every  schoolmaster  to 
express  immediately  his  full  consent  to  everything  contained  in 
the  prayer,  book.  About  two  thousand  ministers  resigned  their 
positions  rather  than  agree  to  this  requirement.  These  were 
mostly  Presbyterians.  They  and  the  congregations  who  wished  to 
worship  with  them  were  thus  placed  in  a  position  practically  the 
same  as  the  Independents,  Baptists,  Quakers,  and  other  new 
sects.  They  all  came,  therefore,  to  be  known  alike  as  "  Dissent- 
ers," that  is  to  say,  such  as  dissented  from  the  established  church. 
The  Dissenters  would  have  been  satisfied  if  they  had  been  allowed 
to  form  congregations  and  carry  on  worship  in  their  own  way, 
even  if  they  did  not  have  the  use  of  the  parish  churches*  or  receive 
tithes  for  the  support  of  their  clergy.  But  even  this  was  not 
allowed.  Parliament  was  afraid  to  allow  the  formation  of  new 
congregations  for  fear  the  Dissenters,  influenced  by  their  minis- 
ters, might  try  to  reintroduce  the  Commonwealth.  In  1664,  there- 
fore, the  "  Conventicle  Act "  was  passed,  which  punished  any  one 
attending  a  conventicle l  with  penalties  increasing  with  each  repe- 
tition of  the  offense,  till  in  case  of  a  fourth  repetition  the  offender 
was  transported  to  endure  seven  years'  servitude  in  the  West 
Indies.  The  next  year,  1665,  still  another  step  was  taken  in  the 
same  direction  by  the  passage  of  the  "Five-Mile  Act."  This 
prohibited  the  ministers  who  had  lately  been  turned  out  of  the 
parish  churches  from  coming  within  five  miles  of  any  place  where 
they  had  formerly  preached,  or  of  any  large  town,  unless  they 
would  take  an  oath  declaring  that  it  was  not  lawful  under  any 
circumstances  to  take  up  arms  against  the  king,  and  would 
renounce  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 

1  A  conventicle  was  a  gathering  for  religious  worship  not  in  conformity 
with  the  law.  According  to  this  statute  it  was  a  gathering  where  more 
than  four  persons  outside  of  a  household  were  present,  and  where  some 
other  form  of  service  than  that  of  the  prayer  book  was  used. 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION   OF   1688      471 

Another  act  passed  in  1661  led  to  the  repression  of  the  Dis- 
senters by  more  indirect  means.  This  was  what  was  called  the 
"  Corporation  Act."  l  According  to  its  provisions  all  who  held 
office  in  any  city  or  town  were  obliged  to  renounce  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant  taken  in  1643  ;  to  swear  that  it  was  unlaw- 
ful to  bear  arms  against  the  king;  and  to  attend  the  sacrament 
of  communion  as  it  was  given  with  the  rites  of  the  established 
church  of  England.  This  put  the  government  of  all  the  towns 
in  the  hands  of  church  of  England  men.  Since  in  many  of  the 
towns  the  corporation  elected  the  representatives  of  the  town  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  this  also  served  the  purpose  of  excluding 
Dissenters  from  future  parliaments.2 

The  church  of  England  in  its  old  form  was  now  rapidly  regain- 
ing its  former  power.  It  was  powerful  not  because  it  was  upheld 
by  the  king  and  his  ecclesiastical  advisers,  as  under  Elizabeth, 
James,  and  Charles,  but  because  it  stood  midway  between  the 
Dissenters  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Roman  Catholics  on  the 
other.  The  first  of  these  groups,  the  Dissenters  of  various  sects, 
were  so  numerous  and  had  been  so  closely  connected  with  the 
rebellion  that  they  were  dreaded  by  moderate  men  as  revolution- 
ists and  extremists.  The  Roman  Catholics,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  so  few  that  the  widespread  fear  lest  they  should  get  back 
into  power  and  make  England  again  a  Catholic  country  as  we  look 
back  upon  it  now  seems  to  have  been  childish  and  unreasonable. 
No  one  could  have  believed  it  probable  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
English  people  would  ever  again  become  Roman  Catholics. 

1  The  word  corporation  as  used  in  England  means  the  government  of  a 
town  or  city  ;  the  body  of  regularly  organized  members  of  a  council ;  alder- 
men, or  whatever  other  name  they  are  known  by  in  each  particular  case. 

2  The  four  laws  which  have  been  here  described,  sometimes  called  the 
"Clarendon  Code,"  namely,  the  Corporation  Act  of  1661,  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity of  1662,  the  Conventicle  Act  of  1664,  and  the  Five-Mile  Act  of 
1665,  deprived   Presbyterians,  Independents,  and  several  other  religious 
bodies  of  their  hard-won  privileges  and  brought  them  all  again  under  the 
control  of  the  established  church. 


4/2  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

There  were,  however,  two  reasons  why  the  people  might  fear 
the  restoration  of  "  popery,"  as  Roman  Catholicism  was  then 
usually  called  in  England.  One  of  these  was  the  attitude  of  the 
king,  who  certainly  favored  the  Roman  Catholics ;  the  other  was 
the  danger  from  the  great  Catholic  governments  on  the  continent, 
which  might  at  any  time  send  their  armies  to  the  help  of  their 
English  co-religionists. 

419.  The  Declarations  of  Indulgence.  —  Early  in  his  reign 
Charles  had  issued  a  declaration  stating  that  the  laws  forbidding 
any  other  worship  than  that  of  the  established  church  would  not 
be  enforced  and  that  for  the  time  no  one  would  be  disturbed  in 
his  worship  if  it  was  peaceable  and  without  public  scandal ;  but 
parliament  had  petitioned  him  to  put  the  laws  in  force.  Never- 
theless Charles,  in  secrecy  and  among  a  small  group  of  his  most 
intimate  friends,  in  the  year  1669,  declared  himself  a  Roman 
Catholic,  while  his  brother  James,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  publicly 
acknowledged  his  conversion  to  that  faith. 

The  king  was  now  even  more  anxious  to  favor  his  fellow-religion- 
ists. In  1672  he  issued  by  virtue  of  his  dispensing  power 1  a  second 
and  more  formal  "  Declaration  of  Indulgence."  This  proclamation 
suspended  the  enforcement  of  all  laws  punishing  Roman  Catholics 
or  Dissenters  for  their  failure  to  conform  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws. 

1  The  dispensing  power  or  power  of  dispensation  was  a  right  claimed  by 
the  king  to  free  persons  from  the  necessity  of  obeying  some  law.  Just  as 
the  right  of  pardon  allows  the  king  to  free  a  person  from  punishment  for 
some  breach  of  law  wThich  he  has  already  committed,  so  the  right  of  dis- 
pensing would  allow  him  to  permit  men  beforehand  to  do  something  which 
was  forbidden  by  the  law.  Even  without  the  exercise  of  the  dispensing 
power  it  was  possible  for  the  king  to  do  much  to  shelter  the  Dissenters 
and  mitigate  the  rigor  of  the  law.  Magistrates,  sheriffs,  jailers,  and  other 
law  officers  were  servants  of  the  king,  and  they  could  not  act  against  his 
wishes.  Therefore  the  Dissenters  and  the  Roman  Catholics  wrere  not 
severely  persecuted  in  Charles'  time,  except  when,  in  order  to  obtain  favor 
with  parliament,  the  king  found  it  desirable  to  conform  to  its  wishes  and 
enforce  the  laws  strictly. 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION    OF   1688     473 

In  itself  this  was  a  just,  liberal,  and  wise  measure ;  but  in  the  eyes 
of  the  country  it  was  simply  an  effort  on  the  king's  part  to  re- 
store the  Catholics  to  power,  and  it  was  certainly  against  the  law. 
Parliament,  therefore,  protested  strongly  against  the  declaration, 
claiming  that  by  it  forty  laws  on  the  statute  book  were  rendered 
of  no  effect  and  that  "  penal  statutes  in  matters  ecclesiastical 
cannot  be  suspended  but  by  act  of  parliament."  As  the  king 
was  extremely  anxious  just  at  this  time  to  keep  on  good  terms 
with  parliament  he  gave  way  again  and  reluctantly  withdrew  the 
Declaration  of  Indulgence. 

Parliament  was  not  satisfied  with  this  concession  but  took  more 
positive  action.  In  1673  it  passed  the  "Test  Act,"  a  law  requir- 
ing that  no  one  should  hold  any  office  under  the  government 
who  would  not  first  declare  his  disbelief  in  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation  and  receive  the  sacrament  of  communion  accord- 
ing to  the  rites  of  the  church  of  England.  No  Roman  Catholic 
could  now  share  in  the  government  of  the  nation,  just  as  neither 
Roman  Catholics  nor  Dissenters  according  to  the  Corporation 
Act  could  share  in  the  local  government.  The  supremacy  of  the 
established  church  was  now  complete.  The  entire  control  of 
ecclesiastical,  educational,  and  charitable  organizations  was  in  its 
hands;  it  had  a  strong  majority  in  both  houses  of  parliament; 
a  vast  proportion  of  all  offices  in  the  country  was  occupied  by 
its  adherents;  and  it  was  strengthened  and  supported  in  its 
position  by  the  foolish  but  almost  universal  dread  of  the  Roman 
Catholics. 

420.  Titus  Gates  and  the  Popish  Plot.  — This  fear  was  inten- 
sified by  the  growing  military  power  and  victorious  wars  of  the 
French  king.  So  long  as  England  had  a  king  who  was  suspected 
of  being  a  Catholic,  and  an  heir  apparent  who  was  known  to  be 
of  that  faith,  French  regiments  might  be  brought  in  at  any  time 
to  put  her  religion  and  her  liberties  under  the  yoke.  In  1678 
fear  was  raised  to  a  panic  by  the  revelations  made  by  a  certain 
Titus  Gates  concerning  a  supposed  "  Popish  Plot."  This  man 


474  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

took  his  oath  before  a  London  magistrate  that  he  knew  of  a  great 
plot  according  to  which  Charles  was  to  be  murdered,  his  brother 
James  immediately  placed  on  the  throne,  a  French  army  landed 
to  support  him,  and  the  Protestant  religion  in  all  its  forms  abso- 
lutely suppressed.  It  was  an  absurd  story  and  Gates  was  after- 
wards proved  to  be  a  liar  born  and  bred,  with  a  long  career  of 
deception  and  dishonesty  behind  him,  but  no  one  at  that  time 
took  the  trouble  to  look  up  his  record. 

His  story  was  generally  believed  and  a  chance  occurrence  that 
followed  spread  it  far  more  widely.  The  dead  body  of  the  magis- 
trate who  had  listened  to  his  story  and  taken  his  deposition  was 
found  the  next  morning  lying  in  the  street.  This  was  probably 
the  work  of  robbers,  but  many  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
had  been  murdered  by  the  "  Papists  "  for  his  interference  with 
their  plot.  London  was  in  a  fever  of  apprehension,  many  believ- 
ing that  the  city  was  about  to  be  burned  and  the  Protestants 
massacred.  A  little  flail  with  a  lead  tip  which  could  be  carried 
in  the  pocket  and  used  to  defend  one's  self  against  attack  was 
invented  and  named  the  "  Protestant  flail."  So  many  were  bought 
that  the  inventor  made  his  fortune.  Various  persons  who  were 
suspected  of  favoring  Roman  Catholic  plans  or  taking  part  in 
conspiracies  were  tried  and  executed,  and  some  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  noblemen  were  imprisoned  in  the  Tower.  A  whole  class 
of  base  informers  arose  who  gave  perjured  testimony  to  support 
the  prevailing  panic. 

421.  The  Exclusion  Bills.  — The  new  parliament  which  met  in 
1679  shared  in  the  general  excitement  and  in  the  fierce  opposi- 
tion to  the  Catholics.  This  opposition  took  the  form  of  a  vigor- 
ous effort  to  exclude  James  from  the  succession  to  the  throne.  The 
House  of  Commons  believed  that  if  a  devotedly  Roman  Catholic 
king  came  to  rule  over  England  he  would  certainly  attack  the 
Protestantism  of  his  subjects.  Charles,  however,  was  loyal  to  his 
brother.  He  had  no  legitimate  children  of  his  own,  and  had, 
with  a  devotion  to  principle  quite  unusual  to  him,  determined  to 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION    OF   1688     475 

support  his  brother's  right  of  inheritance  at  all  hazards.  He  an- 
nounced that  he  was  willing  to  sign  a  bill  placing  restrictions 
upon  the  exercise  of  many  royal  powers  when  the  king  was  a 
Roman  Catholic.  But  parliament  was  not  satisfied  with  such  a 
compromise  and  in  1679  prepared  to  pass  an  Exclusion  Bill  which 
would  have  prevented  James  from  inheriting  the  crown  at  all. 
Charles  dissolved  parliament  rather  than  allow  the  bill  to  pass. 

Again  the  next  year  a  new  House  of  Commons  passed  a  similar 
Exclusion  Bill,  and,  although  it  was  temporarily  defeated  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  Charles  thought  it  safer  to  dissolve  parliament 
again.  Still  a  third  parliament  attempted  to  pass  the  same  bill 
and  was  also  dissolved  by  the  king. 

422.  The  Succession  to  the  Crown. — The  person  whom  the 
leaders  of  parliament  had  in  mind  as  successor  to  the  throne,  if 
they  could  have  carried  the  Exclusion  Bill,  was  the  oldest  illegiti- 
mate son  of  Charles,  the  duke  of  Monmouth.  He  was  known  to 
be  a  Protestant  and  was  commonly  spoken  of  as  the  "  Protestant 
Duke."  He  had  neither  high  ambitions  nor  great  abilities  and 
did  not  show  much  suitability  for  the  throne.  His  illegitimate 
birth  was  a  bar  to  any  unanimous  acceptance  of  him  by  the 
English  nation.  To  overcome  this  obstacle  a  report  was  spread 
abroad  and  very  generally  believed  that  his  mother  had  really 
been  married  to  Charles  and  that  the  king  would  acknowledge 
the  marriage  in  good  time.  A  large  party  of  the  Protestants  were 
willing  to  favor  Monmouth  and  they  were  headed  by  skillful  leaders 
in  parliament. 

Many,  on  the  other  hand,  were  willing  to  let  matters  take  their 
natural  course.  James  would  undoubtedly  be  a  Catholic  king,  but 
he  would  not  be  likely  to  outlive  his  brother  very  long.  He  had 
two  daughters,  Mary  and  Anne,  who  had  been  brought  up  as 
Protestants,  the  elder  of  whom,  Mary,  would  naturally  succeed 
him.  She  was  married  to  a  Protestant  prince,  William,  prince  of 
Orange.  It  seemed  altogether  probable,  therefore,  that  England 
would  have  a  Protestant  ruler  again  within  a  comparatively  short 


476  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

time.  The  only  cloud  on  the  horizon,  as  far  as  this  expectation 
went,  was  that  James  later  in  life  married  a  second  time  and 
chose  a  Catholic  princess  from  Italy.  If  he  should  have  a  son, 
he  would  undoubtedly  be  brought  up  as  a  Catholic,  and  would 
of  course  inherit  the  crown  in  preference  to  his  elder  sisters. 

423.  Dread  of  Civil  War.  —  The  advocates  of  the  Exclusion  Bill 
for  a  while  kept  up  their  agitation  even  more  violently.  In  1681 
parliament  was  summoned  to  meet  at  Oxford  instead  of  at  West- 
minster, which  had  long  been  its  regular  meeting  place.  The 
reason  for  this  was  that  the  London  mob  had  showed  so  much 
favor  to  the  exclusionists  that  the  king  and  his  ministers  feared 
it  might  break  in  on  parliament  and  influence  its  decisions.  The 
leading  parliamentary  agitators,  on  the  other  hand,  professed  to 
believe  that  the  king  wanted  to  force  them  by  arms  to  do  as  he 
wished.  They  urged  the  members  therefore  to  bring  with  them 
bands  of  servants  armed  for  self-defense.  This  was  mistaken 
advice.  The  sight  of  gentlemen  gathering  with  bands  of  followers 
and  with  arms  in  their  hands  awakened  among  the  people  dread 
of  a  new  civil  war.  The  remembrance  of  the  late  conflict  and 
of  the  rule  of  the  army  was  still  too  fresh  and  hateful  for  men 
to  look  with  equanimity  upon  the  possibility  of  its  return.  Most 
Englishmen  dreaded  Roman  Catholics,  but  they  hated  the  rule 
of  soldiers  still  more. 

Very  soon,  therefore,  the  violent  agitation  against  the  Catholics 
and  against  the  succession  of  James  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
tide  of  popular  feeling  began  to  flow  the  other  way.  Several  of 
those  who  had  been  most  active  in  prosecuting  Roman  Catholics 
were  now  themselves  prosecuted,  and  the  inventor  of  the  Prot- 
estant, flail  and  others  were  convicted  and  executed  for  having 
borne  arms  and  planned  to  attack  parliament  and  the  king. 
Representatives  of  the  strongly  royalist  party  were  elected  in  the 
city  governments  and  the  king  became  much  more  popular. 

This  general  reaction  in  the  country  was  favored  by  the  dis- 
covery in  1683  of  a  plot  to  attack  and  seize  the  king  and  his 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION    OF   1688     477 

brother  as  they  passed,  on  their  return  from  a  hunting  trip,  a 
building  called  "  Rye  House,"  not  far  from  London.  The  plan 
failed,  as  the  king  came  back  some  days  earlier  than  he  was 
expected.  This  conspiracy,  which  is  known  as  the  "  Rye  House 
Plot,"  had  been  formed  by  a  few  old  soldiers  of  the  Common- 
wealth who  were  keeping  up  the  agitation  against  James  and  the 
Catholics.  The  conspirators  were  discovered  and  most  of  them 
executed,  but  the  whole  exclusionist  party  had  to  bear  the  blame 
of  their  violence. 

424.  Execution  of  Russell  and  Sidney. — At  about  the  same 
time  the  existence  of  another  association  for  political  objects 
was  discovered.  It  was  composed  of  noblemen  and  gentlemen 
of  liberal  views  who  wanted  to  force  the  king  to  withdraw  his 
support  from  the  Catholics  and  to  yield  to  the  demands  of  par- 
liament. At  another  time  this  union  of  high-minded  and  prom- 
inent men  would  probably  have  been  considered  innocent  enough. 
But  just  now,  when  there  was  a  general  feeling  that  those  who 
were  opposing  the  king  had  gone  too  far  and  were  threatening 
to  bring  in  civil  war,  it  was  construed  as  treason  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  combination  were  arrested  and  accused.  Lord  Rus- 
sell, one  of  the  noblest  and  best  of  men,  was  subjected  to  a 
long  trial.  More  fortunate  than  Raleigh,  his  wife  was  allowed 
to  sit  at  his  side  taking  notes  of  the  proceedings  and  assisting 
him  to  remember  what  had  been  said  and  done.  He  was  never- 
theless declared  guilty  of  treason  and  executed.  Algernon  Sidney, 
a  man  of  the  same  stamp,  a  student,  thinker,  and  eloquent  writer, 
a  theoretical  republican,  but  without  any  intention  or  desire  to 
bring  about  a  change  in  the  government,  was  executed  at  the 
same  time  for  conspiracy  against  the  king.  The  duke  of  Mon- 
mouth,  who  had  been  connected  with  the  organization,  was  par- 
doned by  his  father  but  sent  to  Holland  as  an  exile.  The  earl  of 
Essex  committed  suicide  in  prison.  The  popularity  of  Charles 
lasted  out  the  remainder  of  his  life  and  served  to  insure  the 
peaceful  accession  of  James  in  1685. 


478 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


425.  Relations  of  England  with   Holland  and  France. — The 

two  foreign  countries  with  which  England  now  had  most  to  do 
were  Holland  and  France.  At  the  beginning  of  Charles's  reign 
England  was  hostile  to  Holland  and  on  tolerably  good  terms  with 
France.  The  clashing  of  English  and  Dutch  commercial  inter- 
ests has  already  been  described.  The  two  countries  were  still 
engaged  in  building  up  trade  and  colonies  in  the  East  Indies,  the 
West  Indies,  and  America.  They  both  had  fishing  fleets  in  the 
North  Sea  and  trading  settlements  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa. 

English  and  Dutch 
vessels  were  still 
competing  for  the 
carrying  trade l  of 
Europe. 

The  Dutch  were 
such  skillful  sail- 
ors and  had  such 
good  vessels  that 
they  had  generally 
proved  themselves 
able   to   underbid 
An  English  War  Vessel :    the  "  Royal  Charles, "  the  ^e  English    even 
Vessel  on  which  Charles  II  returned  to  England  in  trade  ^^  £ng_ 

land  herself.    The 

English  government,  on  the  other  hand,  had  long  tried  to  encour- 
age its  own  seagoing  merchants  in  order  to  give  them  occupation 
and  also  that  there  might  be  an  abundance  of  vessels  and  sailors 
in  case  they  were  needed  for  a  maritime  war.  To  keep  the  car- 
rying trade  of  England  for  its  own  merchants  the  Navigation  Act 
had  been  passed  in  1651.  In  1660  this  law  was  reenacted  and 
other  still  stricter  Navigation  Acts  afterwards  passed.  The  old 
disputes  about  the  Spice  Islands  in  the  East,  the  fisheries  in  the 
North  Sea,  and  other  questions  still  went  on.  Feeling  became 

1  See  p.  456. 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION    OF   1688      479 

more  bitter  till  in  1664  war  broke  out  again  and  raged  on  the 
coast  of  America  and  Africa  and  in  the  English  Channel. 

A  series  of  destructive  sea  fights  took  place,  but  decided 
nothing.  After  one  series  of  victories  the  Dutch  admiral  sailed 
up  and  down  the  Channel  with  a  broom  at  his  masthead  to  show 
that  he  had  swept  the  English  from  the  sea.  But  soon  afterwards 
the  English  fleet  ravaged  the  coast  of  Holland,  and  then  in  turn 
a  Dutch  fleet  sailed  up  the  Thames  and  captured  ships  almost 
in  the  harbor  of  London.  The  two  countries  were  too  evenly 
matched  upon  the  sea  to  reach  a  decisive  result  by  war,  and 
peace  was  agreed  upon  in  1667.  By  this  treaty  the  Dutch  ceded 
New  Amsterdam  to  the  English,  and  England  yielded  the  Spice 
Islands  to  the  Dutch,  confining  her  eastern  trade  to  the  mainland 
of  India.  New  Amsterdam  was  renamed  New  York  after  the 
king's  brother  James,  duke  of  York.  The  Dutch  forts  on  the 
coast  of  Africa  were  also  surrendered  to  the  English,-  and  the  first 
English  "  guineas "  were  coined  from  gold  imported  from  the 
Guinea  coast.  They  were  intended  to  be  worth  a  pound,  but 
were  soon  estimated  and  have  always  since  been  taken  at  twenty- 
one  shillings. 

426.  The  Triple  Alliance.  — The  war  with  Holland  sprang  from 
temporary  commercial  conditions.  When  English  trade  supremacy 
had  once  been  secured  in  England,  America,  and  India,  and  when 
the  Dutch  had  established  their  own  independent  fields  of  activity, 
the  old  bonds  of  race  and  religion  again  asserted  themselves  and 
drew  the  two  nations  more  closely  together.  This  was  the 
more  inevitable  because  of  their  common  danger  from  the  rising 
power  and  aggressiveness  of  France.  France  under  Louis  XIV 
had  a  strong  government,  a  full  treasury,  and  a  well  organized 
and  equipped  army.  Most  important  of  all,  the  national  power 
and  the  foreign  and  internal  policy  of  France  were  under  the 
sole  control  of  the  king.  No  parliament  or  other  body  existed 
in  France  which  could  restrict  the  action  which  he  and  his  min- 
isters wished  to  take.  Louis  had  an  ambitious  desire  to  extend 


480  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

his  territories  and  to  make  France  supreme  over  all  the  surround- 
ing countries  of  the  continent.  England,  although  an  island,  was 
not  without  interest  in  his  policy.  She,  like  other  countries,  was 
in  danger  from  his  interference  in  her  internal  concerns,  if  he 
should  at  any  time  find  it  to  his  interest  so  to  interfere. 

The  danger  of  Holland  was  of  course  still  greater,  as  nothing 
but  the  Spanish  Netherlands  separated  her  frontiers  from  those 
of  France,  and  there  were  frequent  causes  of  dispute.  The  need 
of  common  resistance  to  France  gradually  convinced  thoughtful 
statesmen  in  England  that  their  interest  lay  in  peace  with  the 
Dutch,  and  that  the  two  countries  should  be  allies,  not  enemies. 
This  conviction  led  to  the  formation  in  1668  of  the  Triple 
Alliance,  an  agreement  between  England,  Holland,  and  Sweden 
to  force  Louis  to  agree  to  reasonable  concessions  and  to  bring 
his  wars  to  an  end.  From  this  time  forward  the  popular  Eng- 
lish hostility '  to  the  Dutch  died  out,  while  there  was  a  growing 
antagonism  to  France. 

427.  Subserviency  of  Charles  II  to  France. — This  was  not, 
however,  either  the  feeling  or  the  private  interest  of  Charles. 
There  were  many  reasons  why  he  should  feel  friendly  to  France. 
His  mother  was  Henrietta  Maria,  sister  of  Louis  XIV,  and  he 
had  been  well  treated  in  France  during  the  time  of  his  exile. 
His  Roman  Catholic  religious  proclivities  drew  him  in  the  same 
direction,  and,  probably  stronger  than  all,  Louis  had  a  full 
treasury  which  might  be  drawn  on  should  Charles  need  money 
that  he  could  not  conveniently  get  from  his  own  subjects.  His 
policy,  therefore,  during  his  whole  reign  was  one  of  subserviency 
to  France.  He  acted  in  the  interest  of  France  whenever  he  could 
do  so  secretly  or  without  bringing  about  a  serious  conflict  with 
his  own  parliament.  An  early  and  especially  unpopular  instance 
of  this  was  his  cession  to  Louis  XIV,  for  the  sum  of  ^200,000, 
of  the  city  of  Dunkirk,  which  had  been  captured  by  Cromwell's 
army  and  was  commonly  looked  upon  as  in  a  sense  an  equivalent 
for  Calais. 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF    1688      481 

The  Triple  Alliance  was  distasteful  to  Charles  both  because  his 
commercial  ambitions  for  England  still  made  him  suspicious  of 
the  Dutch  and  because  it  placed  him  on  bad  terms  with  the 
French  king.  He  entered  upon  it  unwillingly,  partly  at  the 
urgency  of  his  ambassador,  the  gifted  Sir  William  Temple,  partly 
with  the  idea  that  Louis  would  offer  him  good  terms  to  with- 
draw from  it.  It  had  not  been  two  years  in  existence,  there- 
fore, before  Charles  made  a  treaty  with  the  king  of  France  which 
was  kept  secret  from  his  most  trusted  ministers,  being  negotiated 
through  one  of  Charles's  sisters.  It  is  commonly  known  as  the 
"  Treaty  of  Dover."  There  was  good  reason  for  keeping  it  secret, 
for  by  it  Charles  agreed  to  desert  Holland,  to  assist  Louis  in  ob- 
taining certain  territory  from  Spain,  and  even  to  allow  a  large 
force  of  English  soldiers  to  serve  in  the  French  army  when  war 
between  France  and  Holland  should  break  out.  In  return  for 
these  concessions  Louis  agreed  to  give  Charles  a  large  sum  of 
money  immediately,  and  a  still  larger  annual  sum  when  the  time 
should  come  for  England  to  give  help  to  the  French  against  the 
Dutch.  At  the  close  of  the  war  England  was  to  receive  some 
territory  from  Holland  and  Spain,  and  six  thousand  French  troops 
were  to  be  sent  into  England  to  aid  Charles  if  he  should  decide 
openly  to  declare  himself  a  Catholic. 

428.  The  Third  War  with  the  Dutch.  — The  full  terms  of  this 
treaty  did  not  come  out  for  years,  but  that  part  of  it  which 
brought  England  into  another  war  with  Holland  was  made  the 
basis  of  an  open  treaty  some  time  afterwards.  The  king's  will 
and  the  remaining  commercial  disputes  were  sufficient  to  precipi- 
tate it,  though  it  had  neither  general  approval  nor  enthusiastic  sup- 
port. This  war  began  in  1672.  The  struggle  against  the  French 
and  English  in  alliance  was  desperately  hard  for  the  Dutch.  On 
the  sea  the  usual  destructive  but  indecisive  battles  were  fought 
between  the  Dutch  and  the  English  fleets.  On  land  the  Dutch 
territories  were  rapidly  overrun  by  the  enormous  armies  of  Louis. 
Finally  as  a  last  resort  the  Hollanders  cut  the  dikes  which  kept 


482  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  seas  and  rivers  from  their  fields,  allowed  the  waters  to  rush 
in,  and  at  this  heavy  price  put  an  impassable  girdle  around  their 
cities  and  forced  the  French  to  retire.  The  hearts  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  and  of  the  best  of  English  statesmen  turned  more 
and  more  against  the  war  with  the  Dutch  and  it  was  brought  to 
an  end  in  1674. 

Charles  and  Louis  now  both  recognized  that  it  would  be 
impossible  to  draw  the  English  again  into  an  active  war  against 
the  Dutch.  The  most  the  two  allied  sovereigns  could  hope  for 
was  to  keep  England  neutral.  For  the  purpose  of  securing  this 
object  Louis  took  Charles  regularly  into  his  pay,  granting  him 
;£i  00,000  a  year  so  that  he  might  not  be  forced  to  ask  parlia- 
ment for  money  and  as  a  result  be  induced  to  consent  to  a  war 
against  France.  Louis  also  gave  him  ^1,600,000  to  prorogue 
his  restless  parliament,  and  gave  him  special  sums  at  other 
times.  Charles  was  in  the  main  faithful  to  his  paymaster,  post- 
poned the  calling  of  a  parliament  as  long  as  he  could,  and  pro- 
rogued it  when  it  threatened  to  put  pressure  upon  him  to  join 
the  contest  against  Louis.  This  remained  the  condition  of  English 
foreign  affairs  during  the  last  ten  years  of  Charles's  reign.  The 
English  king,  in  the  humiliating  position  of  being  in  the  pay  of 
France,  was  keeping  England  out  of  a  combination  with  Holland, 
which  otherwise  would  have  been  her  natural  policy,  and  keeping 
her  in  close  alliance  with  France,  her  natural  rival. 

429.  Charles  and  his  Ministers;  Clarendon.  —  Charles,  as  has 
been  seen,  never  trusted  implicitly  in  his  ministers,  never  identi- 
fied his  fortune  with  them,  and  never  had  a  "  court  favorite,"  as 
his  father  and  grandfather  had  had.  In  the  early  years  of  his 
reign  his  principal  minister  had  been  Edward  Hyde,  earl  of 
Clarendon,  who  occupied  the  office  of  lord  chancellor.  This 
statesman  had  been  one  of  the  opponents  of  Charles  I  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Long  Parliament,  but  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  civil  war  had  taken  the  side  of  the  king.  He  was  a  labo- 
rious, devoted,  and  moderate  minister  and  gave  Charles  good 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION   OF   1688     483 

advice ;  but  he  was  a  strong  Anglican  and  opposed  the  favor 
which  Charles  showed  to  the  Roman  Catholics.  He  protested 
also  against  the  king's  immoral  life  and  his  lavishness  and  sub- 
serviency to  his  mistresses. 

In  1667  parliament  tried  to  increase  its  control  over  taxation. 
According  to  law  the  king  could  collect  no  taxes  except  by  grant 
of  parliament;  but  when  once  collected  there  was  no  further 
control  over  the  way  in  which  they  should  be  spent.  It  was 
pretty  certain  that  of  the  money 
which  had  been  granted  by  parlia- 
ment on  the  claim  that  it  was  needed 
for  war,  the  navy,  and  other  public 
uses,  Charles  had  spent  a  great  part 
lavishly  on  worthless  women  and 
other  personal  and  unworthy  ob- 
jects. The  House  of  Commons  now 
demanded  an  inquiry  into  the  way 
money  which  they  had  granted  had 
been  expended.  Clarendon  resisted 
the  demand  most  vigorously  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  limit  the  proper 
freedom  of  action  of  the  king  and  Earl  of  Ciarendon 

his  ministers.    Parliament  as  a  result 

attacked  him  bitterly.  Since  the  king  himself  was  weary  of  Clar- 
endon's remonstrances  against  his  personal  life,  he  dismissed  him 
from  office.  He  was  soon  afterwards  impeached  by  the  House 
of  Commons  on  various  charges.  As  the  king  made  no  attempt 
to  defend  him,  he  fled  to  France,  where  he  remained  in  exile  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  He  spent  his  time  writing  a  most  valuable 
and  interesting  history  of  the  "  Great  Rebellion,"  as  he  called  the 
series  of  events  from  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  to  the 
Restoration. 

430.  The  Cabal.  —  No  one  minister  afterwards  took  the  leading 
part  which  Clarendon  had  played.     Five  of  the  ministers  were  of 


484  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

almost  equal  influence  in  the  government  and  equally  received 
the  apparent  confidence  of  the  king.  They  were  all  noblemen  of 
high  rank,  more  lenient  to  the  profligacy  of  the  king  than  Claren- 
don had  been,  and  more  willing  to  support  his  policy  of  religious 
toleration.  Some  one  noticed  that  the  initials  of  the  names  of  the 
five  ministers,  Lords  Clifford,  Ashley,  Buckingham,  Arlington,  and 
Lauderdale,  formed  the  word  cabal,  which  meant  a  committee  or 
group  of  conspirators.  They  were  therefore  frequently  spoken 
of  as  the  "  Cabal,"  and  that  word  has  come  to  have  a  new  and 
more  odious  meaning  from  its  connection  with  this  group  of  rather 
selfish  and  unprincipled  ministers. 

Charles,  however,  gave  his  confidence  to  them  but  partially. 
Two  who  were  Catholics  knew  of  the  Treaty  of  Dover,  the  others 
were  kept  in  profound  ignorance  of  it.  In  fact  Buckingham  and 
Ashley  were  allowed  to  take  part  seriously  in  the  formation  of 
a  pretended  treaty  with  France  which  was  to  hide  the  real  but 
secret  agreement.  These  ministers  as  yet  had  no  meetings, 
combined  on  no  general  policy,  and  did  not  acknowledge  the 
duty  of  supporting  one  another.  It  was  not,  therefore,  a  minis- 
try in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word. 

The  members  of  the  Cabal  one  after  another  resigned  or  were 
dismissed  and  others  took  their  places.  Ashley,  who  had  been 
made  earl  of  Shaftesbury  and  lord  chancellor,  and  who  was  the 
ablest  of  the  group,  was  dismissed  by  the  king  for  supporting  the 
Test  Act.  He  then  became  the  bitterest  opponent  of  the  king 
and  of  James,  and  was  for  years  the  leader  in  the  agitation  for  the 
Exclusion  Bill.  He  was  also  the  leader  in  parliament  of  a  small 
but  growing  party  which  was  in  favor  of  granting  toleration  to  the 
Dissenters  though  not  to  Catholics.  He  was  a  gifted  but  reckless 
man,  and  in  later  years  did  much  to  organize  that  lawless  opposi- 
tion to  the  government  which  made  men  fear  civil  war  again  and 
at  last  brought  about  a  reaction  in  favor  of  the  king.  In  1682 
he  was  in  such  danger  of  prosecution  for  treason  that  he  fled  to 
Holland,  where  he  died  the  next  year. 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION    OF   1688     485 

The  most  influential  minister  during  Charles's  later  years,  the 
earl  of  Danby,  was  impeached  by  the  House  of  Commons  under 
the  belief  that  he  had  taken  bribes  from  France  not  to  stand  in 
the  way  of  her  war  with  the  Dutch.  The  king,  who  was  the  real 
recipient  of  French  bribes,  after  protecting  Danby  for  some  time, 
fearing  that  he  would  betray  the  royal  secrets,  dismissed  him  from 
office  and  imprisoned  him  in  the  Tower.  The  House  of  Commons 
then  dropped  the  impeachment  proceedings. 

431.  Recognition  of  the  Power  of  Parliament.  —  It  may  be 
noticed  that  Charles  II  dismissed  his  ministers  as  soon  as  they 
became  clearly  unpopular  with  parliament.  Clarendon  and  Danby 
went  into  exile  or  imprisonment  not  because  they  had  lost  the 
confidence  of  the  king,  but  because  they  had  lost  the  confidence 
and  approval  of  the  majority  in  parliament.  The  king  would  not 
have  acknowledged,  any  more  than  Elizabeth,  James,  or  Charles  I, 
that  parliament  had  a  right  to  control  him  in  choosing  his  ministers. 
•Nevertheless,  as  a  practical  matter,  he  recognized  that  to  get  along 
with  parliament  he  must  be  represented  by  men  who  were  toler- 
ably satisfactory  to  its  majority.  It  was  fast  coming  to  be  a  settled 
rule  that  a  minister  must  satisfy  parliament  as  well  as  the  king. 

Nor  did  Charles  openly  and  for  any  length  of  time  oppose  the 
wishes  of  parliament  in  his  main  lines  of  policy.  With  the  one 
exception  of  his  manly  and  determined  support  of  his  brother's 
claims  to  the  crown  he  either  yielded  to  the  wishes  of  parliament 
or  took  refuge  in  secret  and  underhand  attempts  to  oppose  them. 
Although  he  favored  toleration  he  signed  the  various  persecuting 
and  restrictive  statutes  which  parliament  passed  and  sent  to  him. 
Although  he  was  favorable  to  France  and  opposed  to  Holland, 
he  at  one  time  allowed  the  Triple  Alliance  to  be  formed,  and 
at  another  ceased  to  give  the  support  to  France  which  he  wished 
and  for  which  he  had  been  so  well  paid.  These  actions  indicate 
that  the  power  of  parliament  was  growing.  No  conditions  had 
been  imposed  on  the  king  at  the  Restoration,  but  the  changed  cir- 
cumstances made  parliament  a  more  influential  body  than  it  had 


486  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

been  before,  and  the  personal  indolence,  good  humor,  and  good 
judgment  of  Charles  prevented  him  from  opposing  this  growth. 

432.  Growth  of  Political  Parties. — This  was  the  period  in 
which  permanent  political  parties  came  into  existence.  In  earlier 
times  there  had  been  no  settled  parties,  though  of  course  mem- 
bers of  parliament  divided  into  those  who  favored  and  those 
who  opposed  particular  measures.  During  the  sixteenth  century 
the  share  taken  by  parliament  in  the  work  of  government  was 
too  small  and  parliament  met  too  infrequently  for  parties  to  be 
formed.  In  the  Long  Parliament  party  divisions  had  shown  them- 
selves, but  the  first  parties  soon  transformed  themselves  into  the 
opposing  forces  of  a  civil  war,  and  the  later  divisions  were  sup- 
pressed by  the  army.  After  the  Restoration,  however,  things  were 
different.  Parliament  met  frequently,  and  the  growing  power 
which  has  just  been  spoken  of  made  it  worth  while  for  parties  to 
form  themselves,  adopt  principles,  and  assert  their  influence. 

The  division  into  parties  that  took  place  was  a  natural  one, 
based  on  the  attitude  of  different  men  toward  the  government. 
One  class  of  men  both  in  and  outside  of  parliament  felt  very 
strongly  that  the  government  ought  to  be  upheld  through  every- 
thing. The  things  that  struck  them  as  most  important  were  the 
good  order,  peace,  and  quiet  that  came  to  the  country  from  a 
strong  government.  As  the  government  of  England  was  mon- 
archical, all  their  feelings  led  such  men  to  loyalty  and  devotion 
to  the  king.  The  same  men  naturally  supported  the  established 
church  of  England,  as  it  also  was  part  of  the  old  well-ordered 
system  of  the  government  of  the  country. 

Other  men,  without  being  exactly  opposed  to  this  set  of  views, 
were  more  impressed  with  the  need  of  protecting  men  from  the 
oppression  of  government.  Their  inclination  was  to  restrict  the 
royal  power  and  to  give  greater  liberty  to  individual  men.  They 
were  opposed  to  much  control  by  government.  Such  men  natu- 
rally adopted  a  policy  of  toleration  in  religious  matters,  since 
this  also  was  a  form  of  individual  liberty. 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF   1688     487 

These  differences  of  views  came  out  frequently  in  the  Con- 
vention Parliament  of  1660,  and  still  more  clearly  in  the  Cavalier 
Parliament,  which  sat  in  successive  sessions  during  the  next 
seventeen  years  of  Charles's  reign.  Ministers  recognized  these 
differences  and  appealed  to  them.  The  earl  of  Danby  strove 
regularly  for  the  support  of  men  of  the  former  class,  the  earl  of 
Shaftesbury  for  the  support  of  those  of  the  latter. 

433.  Petitioners  and  Abhorrers ;  Whigs  and  Tories.  —  The  first 
occasion  when  any  distinct  party  names  were  used  or  organization 
effected  was  in  1680.  Parliament  had  been  dissolved  in  1679 
to  prevent  its  passing  the  Exclusion  Bill.  Within  a  few  months 
numerous  petitions  were  sent  to  the  king,  evidently  by  a  precon- 
certed arrangement,  urging  him  to  call  parliament  together  again, 
so  that  the  Exclusion  Bill  could  be  passed.  Great  numbers  of 
counter  addresses  were  then  sent  to  the  king  declaring  the 
abhorrence  felt  by  the  writers  at  the  efforts  being  made  to  force 
the  king  to  call  parliament  until  in  his  own  good  judgment  he 
should  think  best.  Those  who  sent  the  first  set  of  petitions 
were  commonly  called  "  Petitioners,"  those  who  sent  the  others 
"  Abhorrers." 

In  parliament,  when  it  met,  the  same  division  was  kept  up. 
Petitioners  and  Abhorrers  were  soon  superseded  by  "Whigs"  and 
"Tories."  These  terms  were  in  the  first  place  words  of  abuse 
or  ridicule.  "Whigs"  was  an  abbreviation  of  "  Whigamores," 
the  name  applied  to  the  fanatical  Scotch  Dissenters  who  were 
then  in  rebellion  in  the  western  counties  of  Scotland.  Tories 
were  Irish  outlaws  or  highwaymen.  Terms  which  were  at  first 
applied  in  ridicule,  as  so  often  happens,  were  later  accepted 
seriously  and  became  the  well-established  names  for  the  two 
great  political  parties.  After  this  time  those  who  belonged 
to  the  same  party  generally  held  together  on  public  questions, 
and  in  parliament  one  or  other  of  the  parties  usually  had  a 
distinct  majority.  Having  once  come  into  existence,  the  parties 
adopted  certain  points  of  policy  which  had  very  little  to  do  with 


488  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

their  origin.  In  order  to  win  adherents  in  parliament  the  miser- 
able system  of  bribery  sprang  up,  and  the  leaders  of  both  parties 
frequently  won  members  for  their  side  by  payment  in  money, 
offices,  or  other  considerations. 

The  formation  of  parties  had  a  most  important  effect  on  the 
growth  of  the  powers  of  parliament.  A  body  of  men  with  dis- 
tinct principles,  a  party  organization,  and  acknowledged  leaders 
was  so  powerful  that  when  it  proved  itself  to  be  in  the  majority 
on  any  question  the  king  and  his  ministers  practically  had  to  con- 
form to  its  wishes.  On  the  other  hand,  in  earlier  times,  when 
just  as  many  adherents  of  one  view  had  existed,  but  without  party 
organization  or  name,  neither  they  nor  the  king  had  known  their 
strength.  The  division  into  two  well-marked  parties  has  been  the 
foundation  of  English  parliamentary  power. 

434.  The  Whig  Nobles  and  Merchants  and  Tory  Gentry  and 
Clergy.  —  The  classes  of  the  people  which  belonged  to  the  Whig 
and  the  Tory  parties  respectively  were  well  denned.  The  men 
of  most  of  the  great  noble  families  were  Whigs.  The  heads  of 
these  families  were  members  of  the  House  of  Lords,  they  had 
much  power  in  the  counties  where  their  estates  lay,  and  many 
members  from  the  smaller  boroughs  were  elected  to  the  House  of 
Commons  by  their  influence.  The  merchants  of  the  large  com- 
mercial towns  were  also  almost  always  Whigs,  that  party  usually 
favoring  trade  and  freedom  of  enterprise  and  of  thought. 

The  great  mass  of  the  country  gentry  and  clergy,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  Tories  in  their  political  principles.  The  country  squire 
with  his  lands  and  manor  house  and  the  country  clergyman  with 
his  parsonage  and  parish  church  formed  the  great  backbone  of 
loyalty  to  the  king  and  to  the  church.  The  country  gentleman 
found  occupation  in  looking  after  his  lands,  and  acting  as  justice 
of  the  peace,  and,  in  occasional  instances,  in  literary  and  scientific 
pursuits.  His  amusements  were  hunting  and  such  social  inter- 
course as  he  could  carry  on  with  other  families  of  the  same  region. 
The  country  clergyman  performed  more  or  less  faithfully  the  church 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF   1688     489 

services,  attended  to  the  duties  of  his  parish,  and  ate,  drank,  and 
played  cards  with  the  families  of  the  neighboring  gentry.  Neither 
squire  nor  clergyman  knew  much  of  the  world  beyond  his  immedi- 
ate neighborhood,  and  both  were  correspondingly  narrow-minded, 
prejudiced,  and  loyal. 

435.  The  Attack  on  the  Charters.  — The  Whig  principles  of  the 
merchants  were  exercised  in  steady  opposition  to  the  autocratic 
tendencies  of  Charles.  Their  influence  over  the  commercial  cities 
was  clearly  shown  in  the  elections  to  the  later  parliaments  of  his 
reign,  and  in  the  agitations  led  by  Shaftesbury,  which  were  so 
nearly  successful  in  forcing  the  Exclusion  Bill  upon  him.  To 
overcome  this  opposition  the  king  and  his  ministers  devised  a 
plan  to  put  the  control  of  the  towns  into  the  hands  of  men  of 
more  royalist  tendencies.  It  will  be  remembered  that  each  town 
had  a  charter  or  series  of  charters  giving  it  a  right  to  carry  on  its 
own  government,  but  at  the  same  time  requiring  those  who  directed 
its  affairs  to  fulfill  certain  conditions.  In  1682  a  prosecution 
against  the  city  of  London  was  brought  into  the  courts  by  a  writ 
called  "  Quo  Warranto,"  claiming  that  the  city  had  failed  to  con- 
form to  the  requirements  of  its  charter  and  asking  that  the  charter 
should  therefore  be  forfeited.1  After  a  long  trial  the  judges,  who 
were  much  influenced  by  the  crown,  gave  a  decision  against  the 
city,  its  charter  was  forfeited,  and  for  a  while  the  king  appointed 
the  city  officers  in  entire  disregard  of  its  old  rights  of  self- 
government. 

This  procedure  having  proved  successful  in  the  case  of  London, 
similar  suits  were  brought  against  a  number  of  other  towns.  The 
cities  in  each  case  were  compelled  to  surrender  their  charters,  and, 
although  new  ones  were  granted  to  them,  the  members  of  the  new 

1  The  words  quo  uuarranto  were  the  first  two  words  of  the  order  of 
the  court  requiring  the  city  authorities  to  appear  in  court  and  tell  "  by  what 
warrant "  they  still  exercised  their  powers  when  they  had  failed  to  conform 
to  the  conditions  of  their  charter.  It  would  then  be  their  duty  to  prove, 
if  they  could,  that  they  had  done  all  that  their  charter  required  of  them. 


490  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

government  or  corporation,  who  were  named  by  the  king  in  the 
charter  itself,  were  in  almost  all  cases  Tories.  The  result  was 
that  those  town  governments  which  elected  members  to  parlia- 
ment now  chose  Tories  where  Whigs  had  before  been  sent.  But 
natural  tendencies  were  stronger  than  royal  schemes,  and  little  by 
little  the  governments  of  the  larger  towns  gradually  came  again 
into  the  hands  of  the  Whigs. 

436.  Creation  of  the   Standing  Army.  —  In  still  another  way 
more   influence  was  gained   by  the  king.     In  earlier  times  the 
English  government  had  kept  no  troops  except  in  time  of  war. 
One  of  the  provisions  of  the  Declaration  of  Breda  had  been  that 
the  Commonwealth  army  should  be  paid  off  and  dissolved.     Most 
governments  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  however,  now  kept  up 
standing  armies,  and  Charles  II  had  several  reasons  for  wanting 
to  retain  soldiers  permanently  in  his  service.     Instead  of  disband- 
ing the  whole  army,  therefore,  he  retained  three  regiments,  one 
of  cavalry  and  one  of  foot  in  England,  and  one  at  that  time  in 
garrison  at  Dunkirk.     Charles's  wife  was  a  Portuguese  princess, 
who  brought  with  her  as  part  of  her  dowry  the  possession  of  Tan- 
gier in  Africa  and  Bombay  in  India,  so  that  there  was  an  excuse 
for  keeping  up  these  regiments  for  garrison  purposes  even  after 
Dunkirk  was  ceded  to  France.    The  standing  army  therefore  con- 
tinued to  exist,  though  for  a  long  time  it  amounted  only  to  about 
five  thousand  men. 

437.  Milton Most  of  the  literature  of  the  period  of  Charles  II 

reflected  the  character  of  the  court,  —  brilliant,  witty,  reckless, 
with  no  very  high  vein  of  imagination.    Dryden  is  almost  the  only 
great  name  in  poetry  which  really  belongs  to  this  period.     There 
were  two  other  men,  however,  whose  writings  fall  largely  within 
the  period  of  the  Restoration  and  yet  whose  life  and  character 
reflect  rather  the  great  Puritan  period  which   had  just  passed. 
One  of  these  was  John  Milton.    A  brilliant  student  at  Cambridge, 
while  Laud  and  Wentworth  were  supporting  Charles  I  in  his  per- 
sonal   government  he  was    producing  poetry   imbued   with    the 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION    OF   1688     491 


spirit  of  the  old  Greeks  and  Romans  and  some  of  it  written  in 
the  ancient  languages.  The  civil  war  and  the  Commonwealth, 
however,  appealed  strongly  to  his  Puritanism  and  his  love  of 
liberty,  and  he  produced  a  number  of  prose  works  on  questions 
of  the  day.  His  Areopagitica  was  an  appeal  for  freedom  of  rea- 
son and  of  the  press  against  the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  West- 
minster Presbyterian  Assembly.  His  Eikonodastes?  issued  just 
after  the  execution  of  Charles  I,  was  an  answer  to  the  Eikon 
Basilike  and  an  attack  upon  the 
king  and  his  system  of  absolute 
monarchy.  Along  with  these  and 
other  essays  he  wrote  from  time 
to  time  sonnets  and  other  shorter 
poetic  pieces  called  forth  by  the 
great  events  in  the  struggle  then 
in  progress. 

He  held  also  an  official  posi- 
tion, serving  as  corresponding 
secretary  to  the  council  of  state 
and  later  to  the  government  of 
the  Protector.  His  duties  were 
principally  to  translate  into  Latin 
and  sometimes  to  draw  up  letters 
or  treaties  with  foreign  governments.  He  had  no  actual  respon- 
sibility under  the  Commonwealth  and  was  therefore  allowed  at 
the  Restoration  to  go  into  an  undisturbed  retirement.  At  this 
time  he  became  totally  blind,  and  all  his  later  productions  were 
preserved  by  dictation.  Composed  in  this  way,  he  published  in 
1667  Paradise  Lost,  his  greatest  poem  and  one  of  the  greatest 
in  the  English  language.  Its  biblical  subject,  its  sense  of  reality 
of  divine  things,  its  high  tone  of  earnestness,  and  the  sonorous 
eloquence  of  the  blank  verse  in  which  it  is  written  are  all  char- 
acteristic of  the  best  of  Puritanism  and  represent  in  literature 
1  Greek  for  Image  Breaker. 


John  Milton 


492  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND 

much  the  same  spirit  as  Cromwell  expressed  in  the  practical  tasks 
of  government. 

438.  Bunyan. — John    Bunyan  was   a  wandering  tinker  who 
became  a  soldier  in  the  parliamentary  army  and  was  later  an 
earnest  Baptist  preacher.     After  the  Restoration  he  attempted  to 
continue  his  preaching,   notwithstanding  the   laws  against  Dis- 
senters, and  as  a  result  was  imprisoned  for  a  long  time  in  Bed- 
ford jail.     From  his  prison  he  sent  out  a  series  of  religious  tracts 
and  other  works.     In  1678  appeared  his  Pilgrim's  Progress,  the 
most  popular  allegorical  work  ever  written. 

Looked  upon  simply  as  a  story,  the  reality  of  its  characters, 
the  simplicity  and  clearness  of  the  narrative,  the  quaintness  of 
the  observations  have  delighted  millions  of  readers.  It  has  been 
translated  into  all  the  languages  of  Europe  and  has  been  pub- 
lished in  every  form  of  which  the  printing  press  is  capable.  It 
has  also  given  religious  teaching  to  many  hundreds  of  thousands. 
It  represents  the  feelings  of  the  Dissenters  of  that  time.  They 
believed  that  they  were  living  in  the  midst  of  a  wicked  world 
from  which  but  one  here  and  there  would  be  saved,  and  that 
only  by  fleeing  from  the  occupations,  the  amusements,  and  the 
interests  of  their  time. 

439.  The   Habeas   Corpus   Act. — There  are  three   important 
events  which  belong  to  the  reign  of  Charles  II  which  have  not 
yet  been  mentioned,  —  the  passage  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act, 
the  Plague,  and  the  Great  Fire  of  London.     The  writ  of  habeas 
corpus 1  was  an  order  granted  by  a  judge  upon  any  man  who  was 
holding  another  in  confinement,  requiring  the  captor  to  bring 
his  prisoner  before  the  judge  to  tell  why  he  was  confining  him. 
Then,  if  a  good  reason  for  keeping  the  prisoner  in  custody  was 
given,  the  judge  appointed  a  time  for  his  trial,  if  not  he  ordered 
his  release.     This  writ  had  been  used  for  centuries  in  England, 

1  Habeas  corpus  means  "  You  are  to  have  the  body,"  and  with  the  words 
which  follow  in  the  writ  require  the  jailer  to  have  the  body  of  such  a  person, 
not  merely  a  message  from  him,  at  such  a  time  before  the  court. 


-o 

OF   TyE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF   1688     493 

but  there  were  many  ways  in  which  jailers  and  judges  eluded  its 
requirements.  This  was  done  especially  when  the  king  or  minis- 
ters wished  a  man  to  be  imprisoned  and  held  without  being  able 
or  willing  to  make  any  formal  charge  against  him.  -In  1679, 
under  the  influence  of  Shaftesbury,  an  act  was  passed  which  put 
an  end  to  all  these  interferences  with  the  free  and  effective  use 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  Comparatively  little  interest  was 
taken  in  the  passage  of  the  act  at  the  time,  but  afterwards  it 
came  to  be  more  and  more  highly  valued.  It  was  long  a  special 
mark  of  the  freedom  enjoyed  by  the  English  people,  as  it  gave 
them  a  protection  possessed  by  subjects  of  no  other  European 
government. 

440.  The  Plague.  —  In  the  summer  of  1665  there  was  a  visita- 
tion of  pestilence  in  London,  probably  almost  as  destructive  as 
the  Black  Death  of  1349,  and  possibly  a  recurrence  of  the  same 
disease.     Epidemics  of  pestilence  wejre  a  frequent  occurrence 
in  those  days  of  close  building,  narrow,  dirty,  and  badly  repaired 
streets,  and  lack  of  medical  knowledge,  but  this  attack  was  of 
such  destructiveness  as  to  stand  out  from  all  others  and  to  be 
known  especially  as  the  "  Plague."     It  spread  into  other  parts  of 
the  country,  but  was  not  so  severe,  and  it  died  away  when  winter 
came.     During  its  ravages  deaths  became  so  numerous  that  the 
ordinary  arrangements  for  funerals  were  no  longer  practicable,  and 
wagons  were  sent  by  the  city  authorities  through  the  streets  at 
night,  the  driver  ringing  a  bell  and  calling  out,  "  Bring  out  your 
dead."     The  Plague  has  been  made  familiar  through  the  well- 
known  description  contained  in  Dryden's  poem  Annus  Mirabilis, 
and  in  the  account  written  afterwards  by  Defoe,  the  author  of 
Robinson  Crusoe. 

441.  The  Great  Fire. — One  of  the  other  events  which  led 
Dryden  to  speak  of  1665—1666   as  the  "wonderful  year"  was 
the  terrible  fire  which  raged  for  three  days  over  the  most  closely 
built  parts  of  London.    Almost  the  whole  of  the  ancient  city  was 
swept  away.     St.  Paul's  Cathedral  and  most  of  the  other  buildings 


494 


A    SHORT   HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND 


which  had  made  up  the  London 'of  the  middle  ages,  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  of  the  early  Stuart  period  were  destroyed.  Lon- 
don, therefore,  has  fewer  mediaeval  remains  than  any  other  old 
city  of  Europe.  The  fire  caused  terrible  loss  and  privation,  but 
there  were  some  compensations.  In  the  first  place  the  germs  of 

the  Plague  were 
effectually  de- 
stroyed, and  in  the 
second  place  the 
streets  were  made 
wider  and  the 
houses  more 
healthful  as  the 
city  was  rebuilt. 

442.  Architec- 
ture and  Painting. 
—  Plans  were 
made  for  a  resto- 
ration of  the  city 
on  one  great  sys- 
tem, and,  although 
these  were  not 
carried  out,  yet  an 
admirable  oppor- 
tunity was  given 
for  the  erection 
of  new  buildings. 
It  was  a  time  of 


St.  Paul's  Cathedral 


much  interest  in  architecture  and  there  were  in  England  several 
architects  of  ability  and  originality.  Of  these  Sir'  Christopher 
Wren  was  the  most  famous.  He  had  been  trained  in  Italy  and 
was  imbued  with  admiration  for  the  work  of  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance. The  works  on  architecture  also  which  had  the  greatest 
reputation  at  this  time  were  written  by  Italians.  Most  of  the 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION   OF   1688     495 

building  of  the  later  seventeenth  century,  therefore,  both  in  the 
country  and  in  the  burned  city,  was  of  this  style.  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  as  we  see  it  now  was  designed  and  built  by  Wren.  He 
is  buried  within  it  in  a  tomb  which  bears  the  inscription 

Si  momimentum  requieris,  circumspice, 
"  If  you  seek  his  monument,  look  around  you." 

In  architecture  the  designs  came  from  abroad,  but  the  archi- 
tects were  usually  Englishmen.  In  painting  the  artists  them- 
selves were  still  foreigners.  The  German  Holbein  and  his  pupils 
had  painted  the  portraits  of  the  men  of  Henry  VIII's  day; 
Dutch,  Italian,  and  Spanish  painters,  those  of  Queen  Elizabeth 
and  James  I  and  their  courtiers.  In  the  time  of  Charles  I, 
Vandyke,  a  gifted  Flemish  artist,  settled  in  England  as  court 
painter  and  left  numerous  and  charming  portraits  of  the  king, 
his  family,  and  other  prominent  men  and  women  of  the  time. 
Sir  Peter  Lely,  a  Dutchman,  was  the  court  and  popular  painter 
through  much  of  the  period  of  the  Restoration,  but  he  had  not 
the  grace  of  Vandyke,  and  the  court  beauties  and  noblemen  of  the 
time  of  Charles  II  were  either  not  so  handsome  in  themselves  or 
not  so  fortunate  in  their  painter  as  were  those  of  the  time  of 
Charles  I,  or  even  of  the  Commonwealth.  There  were  only  a 
few  native  artists,  such  as  Samuel  Cooper,  who  has  left  a  fine 
portrait  of  Cromwell. 

443.  Science The  English  accomplished  more  in  the  inves- 
tigation of  nature  than  in  the  production  of  works  of  art.  In  the 
early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  Sir  Francis  Bacon 
was  making  experiments  in  natural  science  and  striving  to  base  a 
philosophy  entirely  upon  such  investigation,  he  had  found  but  few 
to  take  an  interest  in  his  work.  But  since  then  men  had  more 
and  more  turned  their  attention  and  their  learning  to  the  study 
of  matter,  force,  the  appearances  of  the  outer  world,  the  laws  of 
mathematics,  and  the  variety  of  vegetable  and  animal  nature.  A 
group  of  men  interested  in  such  matters  began  to  hold  weekly 


496  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

meetings  in  London  and  Oxford  in  the  midst  of  the  civil  war,  and 
in  1662  a  number  of  them  obtained  a  charter  under  the  name  of 
the  "Royal  Society."  They  began  in  1665  the  publication  of  the 
series  of  transactions  which  has  been  kept  up  ever  since.  Many 
discoveries  were  made  and  recorded  by  the  scientists  of  this  time, 
especially  by  the  greatest  of  them,  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 

444.  Chocolate,  Coffee,  and  Tea. — A  change  of  great  interest 
and  importance  in  the  habits  of  life  came  about  during  this  period 
in  the  growing  custom  of  drinking  chocolate,  coffee,  and  tea. 
Native  beer  and  ale  and  imported  wine  had  been  the  common 
beverages  of  England.  During  the  middle  years  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  use  of  chocolate  made  its  way  into  England 
from  Spain  and  Italy,  whither  it  had  been  brought  from  Mexico 
and  the  West  Indies,  where  the  cocoa  tree  is  indigenous  and  the 
habit  of  making  a  drink  from  the  nuts  a  native  one.  At  first  it 
was  recommended  and  used  as  a  medicine,  but  soon  it  became 
customary  to  take  it  as  a  pleasant  drink  instead  of  wine  or  beer. 
The  increasing  connection  with  eastern  countries  made  many  new 
products  more  familiar  during  the  Commonwealth  and  the  reign 
of  Charles  II.  Among  these  coffee  was  introduced  from  Arabia 
and  some  other  parts  of  Asia  where  it  had  long  been  familiar. 
Tea  began  to  be  used  about  the  same  time  but  grew  more  slowly 
into  popularity. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  common  use  of  these  beverages  was 
the  opening  of  rooms  known  as  "  coffee-houses  "  where  they  were 
provided  and  sold.  The  first  of  these  was  opened  by  a  Greek  in 
London  in  1652.  They  became  the  customary  meeting  places, 
in  London  and  the  larger  cities,  of  men  of  leisure  who  took  an 
interest  in  public  affairs.  Here  current  events  were  talked  over 
and  opinions  expressed  and  compared.  The  actions  of  the  gov- 
ernment as  well  as  books  and  the  fashions  were  subjected  to 
discussion  and  criticism.  A  body  of  common  public  opinion, 
small  but  influential,  was  thus  created.  As  far  as  it  related  to 
politics  coffee-house  opinion  was  like  the  opinions  of  the  readers 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION    OF   1688     497 

of  a  modern  daily  newspaper ;  in  matters  of  literature  it  was  more 
like  the  common  judgment  on  books  obtained  by  the  readers  of 
some  literary  review. 

445.  Newspapers.  —  At  the  coffee-houses  the  current  news- 
papers could  be  found  and  read.  Newspapers  had  been  first 
printed  in  the  reign  of  James,  probably  the  earliest  known  dated 
paper  being  The  Courant  or  Weekly  News,  begun  in  the  year 
1621.  Notwithstanding  the  name  neither  this  nor  other  such 
publications  came  out  very  regularly.  They  might  be  described 
as  small  pamphlets  dealing  with  the  occurrences  of  the  time  and 
appearing  about  once  a  week,  often  with  a  new  title  for  each 
number. 

When  the  civil  war  broke  out  there  was  so  much  of  interest 
going  on  that  a  number  of  newspapers  appeared  more  regularly, 
once  a  week  being  the  usual  time.  Then  came  a  period  when 
the  government  tried  to  suppress  all  of  them  but  one  or  two, 
which  were  authorized  to  print  public  news.  After  the  Restora- 
tion this  effort  to  put  an  end  to  most  of  the  newspapers  was  kept 
up.  A  severe  licensing  act  was  passed  in  1662  forbidding  all 
publications  except  those  which  had  passed  the  government  cen- 
sorship. A  regular  officer  was  appointed  to  hunt  out  and  prose- 
cute all  writers  and  printers  of  unauthorized  papers.  This  officer 
was  himself  allowed  to  print  a  newspaper  with  the  authority  of 
government.  After  many  changes  and  difficulties  the  London 
Gazette  became  the  only  authorized  newspaper  in  1666.  It  was 
a  small  paper  containing  very  little  news  and  that  badly  told. 
Everything  that  might  have  been  of  political  interest  was  kept 
out  by  the  government,  and  it  did  not  occur  to  the  publishers  to 
describe  the  everyday  occurrences  that  fill  so  much  room  in  modern 
newspapers. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II  other  newspapers 
were  started  and  either  approved  by  the  censor  or  published 
secretly.  There  was  so  much  excitement  that  there  was  a  ready 
sale  for  newspapers,  both  Whig  and  Tory,  and  gradually  a  number 


498 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


came  to  be  established  and  regularly  supported  by  sympathizers 
with  one  or  other  of  these  parties. 

446.  Death  of  Charles  II.  —  Charles  died  in  1685.  The  scenes 
at  his  deathbed  were  significant.  He  suffered  from  an  apoplectic 
stroke  but  recovered  consciousness  and  lingered  several  days. 
His  usual  wit  did  not  desert  him,  for  he  asked  pardon  of  those 
around  him  for  his  delay,  saying  that  he  was  an  unconscionable 
time  in  dying.  When  he  was  evidently  failing,  a  Catholic  priest 
was  brought  to  him  by  his  brother.  Then,  after  the  church  of 

England  clergymen  and  all  others 
had  left  the  room,  Charles  con- 
fessed, received  absolution,  and 
died  a  member  of  the  church  of 
Rome.  There  was  little  that  was 
high-minded  or  admirable  in  the 
character  of  Charles  II.  None  the 
less  the  twenty-five  years  of  his 
reign  had  been  a  period  of  much 
constitutional,  commercial,  and  in- 
tellectual progress. 

447.  Accession  of  James  II.  — 
James,  duke  of  York,  the  late  king's 
only  brother,  was  immediately  pro- 
claimed king.  It  was  well  known 
that  he  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  it  was  true,  if  not  so  well 
known,  that  he  held  the  same  views  of  the  powers  of  the  king 
and  had  the  same  obstinate  determination  to  have  his  own  way 
as  his  father.  He  had  but  little  of  the  ease  of  manner,  the  wit, 
and  the  good  nature  of  his  brother.  Nevertheless  the  Tory  reac- 
tion in  the  country  had  been  so  clear,  and  the  feeling  that  the 
king's  authority  must  be  upheld  in  order  to  avoid  something 
worse  was  still  so  strong,  that  he  came  to  the  throne  on  a  wave 
of  popularity.  All  classes  seemed  inclined  to  put  the  best  inter- 
pretation possible  on  what  he  said  and  did.  His  first  expressions 


James 


RESTORATION  AND   REVOLUTION   OF   1688     499 

of  good  will  and  statement  of  his  intention  to  support  the  church 
and  state  as  they  were  then  established  also  favored  the  expec- 
tation that  he  would  carry  on  a  moderate  and  reasonable  rule. 
It  is  true  that  Titus  Gates  was  brought  to  trial  for  his  libels  upon 
the  Catholics,  and  in  accordance  with  the  known  wishes  of  the 
king  condemned  to  successive  whippings  on  his  bare  back  through 
the  streets  of  London  and  to  stand  in  the  pillory ;  but  there  was 
a  general  acceptance  of  this  as  a  fair  vengeance  upon  the  inventor 
of  the  Popish  plot  which  had  brought  so  much  suffering  upon 
the  Roman  Catholics. 

448.  Invasion   of   the  Duke  of   Monmouth. — A  small  party, 
however,  had  never  given  up  the  plan  of  the  Exclusion  Bill  and 
the  succession  of  the  "  Protestant  Duke."     Within  a  few  months 
after  the  accession  of  James,  relying  upon  these  discontented 
men  and  upon  the  large  number  of  Dissenters  in  the  west  of 
England,  Monmouth  sailed  from  the  continent,  landed  at  Lyme 
in  Devonshire,  and  declared  himself  the  legitimate  successor  of 
Charles  II.     He  was  well  received  by  the  lower  classes  in  the 
country  and  the  citizens  of  many  of  the  small  towns,  and  soon 
had  an  army  of  five  thousand  men  behind  him ;  but  not  a  man 
of  any  rank  or  position  took  his  side.     News  soon  came  also  that 
parliament  had  passed  an  act  of  attainder  declaring  him  guilty  of 
treason  and  condemning  him  to  death  without  further  trial.     He 
marched  towards,  London,  still  hoping  that  some  men  of  more 
influence  would   ^ake   his  side,  but  none   came.     Soon  James 
marched  to  meet  him  with  a  part  of  the  regular  troops  and  some 
militia  forces.     At  sWgemoor  on  July  6  "  King  Monmouth,"  as 
his  followers  called  nim,  tried  with  his  raw  volunteers  to  sur- 
prise the  king's  army.  \  They  were,  however,  discovered,  the  rebels 
defeated  and  scattered,!  and  Monmouth  himself  was  captured  and 
taken  to  London.     A 'few  days  afterwards  he  was  executed  as 
a  traitor. 

449.  The   Bloody  Assizes. — A  sad   sequel  to   this   hopeless 
rising  was  the  series  of  trials  held  before  a  special  body  of  judges 


500  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

sent  through  the  southwestern  counties  to  punish  those  who  had 
given  encouragement  to  Monmouth.  The  unavoidable  harshness 
and  the  danger  of  injustice  inseparable  from  treason  trials  were 
made  far  worse  by  the  action  of  Jeffreys,  at  that  time  chief  justice 
of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  and  president  of  the  special  com- 
mission. This  judge  was  abusive,  profane,  and  cruel.  He  seemed 
to  take  delight  in  sarcasm  and  mockery  at  the  expense  of  those 
who  were  brought  before  him.  He  never  failed  to  stretch  the  law 
to  its  fullest  degree  of  severity,  condemned  many  to  death  who 
might  well  have  been  spared,  and  made  unjust  sentences  doubly 
hard  by  adding  to  them  words  of  contempt  and  scorn.  More 
than  three  hundred  persons  were  hanged  as  a  result  of  these  trials 
and  eight  hundred  and  fifty-one  condemned  to  be  transported  to 
the  West  Indies  and  sold  into  virtual  slavery.  A  characteristic 
instance  is  that  of  Alice  Lisle,  an  aged  and  charitable  lady  of 
Winchester,  who  was  condemned  to  death  and  executed  because 
she  had  hidden  two  fugitives  in  her  house,  knowing  that  they  were 
rebels.  When  Chief  Justice  Jeffreys  returned  from  the  "  Bloody 
Assizes,"1  as  they  have  always  since  been  called,  James  showed 
his  approval  of  his  actions  by  appointing  him  lord  chancellor. 

450.  Increasing  Tyranny  of  the  King. — This  appointment 
was  one  of  the  earliest  of  James's  actions  which  showed  his 
inclination  to  disregard  the  feelings  and  the  wishes  of  his  sub- 
jects. It  was  quickly  followed  by  others.  Indeed  a  perpetual 
succession  of  acts  Of  unpopularity  and  violations  of  the  existing 
laws  now  ensued.  Within  three  short  years  James  aroused  the 
antagonism  of  one  class  of  people  after  another  till  the  opposition 
to  him  was  universal.  He  made  no  attempt  to  secure  the  good 
will  and  support  of  either  the  Tory  or  the  Whig  party,  and  con- 
sequently gained  the  distrust  of  both  alike. 

An  effort  on  the  part  of  the  king  to  put  the  Roman  Catholics 
of  the  country  in  a  better  position  was  natural  but  was  sure  to  be 
unpopular  unless  it  were  carried  out  with  the  greatest  care  and 
1  "Assizes  "  meant  a  session  of  a  court. 


RESTORATION   AND    REVOLUTION    OF   1688      501 

moderation.  James,  on  the  contrary,  entered  immediately  upon 
a  reckless  and  illegal  course  of  action  to  reach  this  end,  and  set 
himself  in  opposition  to  the  strongest  prejudices  and  fears  of  the 
English  people. 

He  quarreled  with  his  ministers  and  dismissed  Halifax  and 
Sunderland,  who  refused  to  support  him  in  the  measures  which  he 
was  planning  for  the  advancement  of  the  Catholics.  As  actions 
of  doubtful  legality  would  sooner  or  later  come  before  the  judges, 
he  consulted  them  beforehand  to  see  which  of  them  would  give 
decisions  in  agreement  with  his  wishes.  Those  who  opposed  him 
he  removed  and  replaced  by  such  as  would  be  compliant.  He 
used  the  rebellion  of  Monmouth  as  an  excuse  for  increasing  the 
standing  army  and  established  a  permanent  military  camp  on 
Hounslow  Heath,  not  far  from  London.  For  the  purpose  of  dis- 
ciplining clergymen  who  opposed  his  actions  he  appointed  an 
"  Ecclesiastical  Commission  Court,"  at  the  head  of  which  he 
placed  Lord  Chancellor  Jeffreys.  This  was  practically  a  reor- 
ganization of  the  old  Court  of  High  Commission  which  had  made 
itself  so  obnoxious  and  had  been  abolished  by  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment. The  king  claimed,  however,  that  the  latter  had  been  a 
court  having  power  over  both  laymen  and  clergymen,  while  this 
had  power  only  over  clergymen.  He  acknowledged  that  a  court 
having  cognizance  of  affairs  of  laymen  was  under  the  control  of 
parliament  to  create  or  to  abolish,  but  pointed  out  that  the  king 
himself  was  by  law  supreme  governor  over  the  church  of  England 
and  might  regulate  the  clergy  in  any  way  he  pleased. 

451 .  Use  of  the  Dispensing  Power.  —  The  Test  Act  had  required 
that  every  person  appointed  to  office  should  take  certain  religious 
tests  to  which  no  Roman  Catholic  could  conform.  James  now 
appointed  officers  in  the  army  who  would  not  take  the  test,  and 
declared  to  parliament  that  he  intended  to  support  them  in  their 
refusal.  The  House  of  Commons  remonstrated  against  this,  and 
as  a  result  James  prorogued  and  afterwards  dissolved  parliament. 
He  declared  that  the  king  had  always  possessed  the  power  of 


502  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

dispensing  with  the  law  in  special  cases.  Charles  II  had  made  the 
same  claim,  but  when  parliament  protested  against  it  had  dropped 
it  for  the  time,  as  he  so  generally  did  matters  of  dispute.  James 
was  more  determined.  He  had  a  collusive  suit  brought  before 
the  court  to  which  he  had  appointed,  as  just  shown,  new  judges 
for  this  very  purpose.  An  officer  of  the  army  was  prosecuted  for 
exercising  his  powers  without  having  taken  the  test.  This  officer 
produced  in  court  a  written  dispensation  from  the  king  freeing 
him  from  the  requirement  to  conform  to  this  particular  law.  The 
judges  decided  that  this  dispensation  was  valid,  and  that  the  king 
had  the  right,  when  he  thought  best,  to  dispense  with  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  law  in  special  cases. 

452.  Appointments  in  the  Church  and  University. — Making 
use  of  the  dispensing  power,  James  authorized  a  number  of  clergy- 
men of  the  church  of  England  who  had  recently  become  Roman 
Catholics  to  retain  their  benefices.  He  appointed  a  Roman 
Catholic  to  be  dean  of  Christchurch  College,  Oxford,  and  allowed 
the  head  of  University  College  to  announce  himself  a  Roman 
Catholic,  to  have  mass  said  openly  in  the  college  chapel,  and  to 
set  up  a  printing  press  in  Oxford  for  Roman  Catholic  literature. 
He  appointed  as  bishop  of  Oxford,  Parker,  a  man  who  was  uni- 
versally believed  to  be  a  Roman  Catholic,  though  he  had  not 
announced  himself  publicly  to  be  such.  When  church  of  Eng- 
land clergymen  preached  against  "  popery  "  he  ordered  them  to 
be  silent,  and  when  the  bishop  of  London  refused  to  enforce 
these  orders  by  suspending  a  prominent  clergyman  who  had  dis- 
obeyed them,  the  bishop  himself  was  brought  before  the  new 
Ecclesiastical  Commission  and  suspended  from  his  office. 

In  1687  the  position  of  president  of  Magdalen  College,  Ox- 
ford, became  vacant.  James  ordered  the  fellows,  who  had  the 
right  of  election  to  the  vacancy,  to  choose  a  certain  clergy- 
man, a  Roman  Catholic.  When  the  nominee  of  the  king  was 
shown  to  be  of  bad  character  James  recommended  another, 
Parker,  the  newly  appointed  bishop  of  Oxford.  The  fellows  in 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF   1688     503 

the  meantime  had  elected  one  of  their  own  number,  John  Hough. 
They  were  summoned  before  the  Ecclesiastical  Commission  and 
browbeaten  and  abused  by  Jeffreys.  They  refused,  however,  to 
submit,  claiming  that  they  had  made  their  election  and  that 
Hough  was  now  legally  president  of  the  college.  James  was 
furiously  angry  at  this  somewhat  unexpected  opposition  and 
insisted  on  carrying  out  the  sentence  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mission. The  fellows  were  expelled  from  their  positions  and 
Parker  was  installed  in  the  office.  Obstinacy  was  not  all  on  the 
side  of  the  king.  The  fellows  would  not  surrender  the  keys  and 
it  was  necessary  to  break  open  the  doors  of  the  president's  lodg- 
ing in  order  to  allow  the  new  head  to  enter  into  possession.  In 
no  other  way  than  this  could  James  have  more  effectually  aroused 
against  himself  the  feeling  of  influential  men  of  the  established 
church  and  the  educated  classes.  The  very  men  who  had  been 
loyal  to  his  father  and  his  brother  now  at  last  felt  themselves  as 
much  insulted  and  aggrieved  as  any  Dissenter  or  parliamentarian. 
453.  James's  Declarations  of  Indulgence.  —  In  fact  James  was 
being  forced  by  the  nature  of  his  position  to  favor  the  Dissenters 
in  order  to  be  able  to  favor  the  Catholics,  and  favor  to  these  two 
bodies  of  course  meant  at  that  time  opposition  to  the  claims  of 
the  established  church.  At  the  very  time  when  the  contest  was 
going  on  with  the  fellows  of  Magdalen  College,  James  was  in  con- 
sultation with  members  of  parliament  to  find  whether  or  not  they 
could  be  induced  to  grant  toleration.  Finding  that  parliamentary 
sentiment  was  all  against  it,  he  determined  to  dissolve  that  body 
and  use  his  dispensing  power  still  further.  In  1687,  therefore,  he 
issued  a  Declaration  of  Indulgence  similar  to  those  which  had 
been  issued  and  then  withdrawn  by  Charles  II  in  1662  and  1672. 
By  it  he  suspended  all  laws  against  Roman  Catholics  and  Dis- 
senters and  gave  to  all  men  alike  the  privilege  of  worshiping 
publicly  and  freely  as  they  pleased.  This  freedom  was  immedi- 
ately made  use  of  by  the  Catholics  but  only  slightly  by  the 
Dissenters.  Many  of  the  latter  were  Whigs  and  did  not  want  a 


504  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

freedom  granted  by  royal  breach  of  the  law ;  others  acted  accord- 
ing to  the  advice  of  leading  men  of  the  established  church,  who 
were  coming  to  see  that  they  could  not  spare  the  support  of 
Dissenters,  and  who  now  gave  them  private  assurances  that  when 
parliament  met  again  they  would  use  all  their  influence  to  have 
a  bill  for  the  toleration  of  Dissenters  passed. 

The  next  year,  1688,  James  issued  a  second  Declaration  of 
Indulgence,  which  extended  even  farther  in  its  provisions  than 
the  former.  The  king,  in  order  to  secure  for  his  action  the  widest 
publicity,  ordered  the  declaration  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches 
on  two  successive  Sundays  in  April.  Scarcely  a  clergyman  obeyed 
the  king's  order.  In  Westminster  Abbey  one  of  the  bishops, 
who  was  especially  subservient  to  the  king,  began  to  read  it,  but 
his  whole  congregation  immediately  arose  and  left  the  abbey.  In 
one  of  the  London  churches  the  minister,  instead  of  reading  the 
declaration,  preached  on  the  text,  "  Be  it  known  unto  thee,  O 
king,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods,  nor  worship  thy  golden  image 
which  thou  hast  set  up."  It  was  very  clear  that  the  general  feel- 
ing was  opposed  both  to  toleration  and  to  the  dispensing  power. 

454.  Petition  of  the  Seven  Bishops.  — The  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury and  six  other  bishops  in  the  meantime  had  prepared  a 
petition  asking  that  the  clergy  might  not  be  compelled  to  read 
the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  and  presented  it  to  the  king  at 
his  palace  at  Whitehall.  The  king,  as  in  the  case  of  Magdalen 
College,  was  furious  at  the  resistance  to  his  will  and  the  disobe- 
dience to  his  commands,  and  exclaimed  :  "  This  is  a  great  sur- 
prise to  me.  I  did  not  expect  this  from  your  church  ;  especially 
from  some  of  you.  This  is  a  standard  of  rebellion.  .  .  .  God 
has  given  me  the  dispensing  power  and  I  will  maintain  it."  They 
were  then  dismissed  but  soon  afterwards  were  arrested  on  the 
claim  that  their  petition  was  a  libel  and  tended  to  sedition. 
They  were  tried  in  Westminster  Hall  in  the  presence  of  a  great 
gathering  of  sympathizing  noblemen,  merchants  of  London,  and 
other  citizens.  In  the  eyes  of  the  people  they  were  martyrs  for 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF   1688      505 

the  English  church  and  for  English  liberties.  Even  the  dissent- 
ing ministers  sent  a  deputation  to  the  jail  to  assure  the  bishops 
of  their  sympathy. 

The  jury  could  not  at  first  agree,  but  on  the  second  day  they 
brought  in  a  verdict  of  "  not  guilty."  It  was  received  every- 
where with  a  tumult  of  joy.  It  was  the  first  important  decision 
adverse  to  the  crown  since  the  Restoration.  Even  the  soldiers 
in  the  regular  army  broke  into  shouts  of  approval  when  they 
heard  the  news  of  the  acquittal  of  the  bishops.  As  James  heard 
the  universal  rejoicing  he  was  struck,  apparently,  with  the  first 
suspicion  that  his  subjects  were  turning  away  from  him.  His 
obstinate  self-confidence  and  conviction  that  he  was  right,  and 
his  utter  contempt  for  laws  which  interfered  with  his  will,  had 
hidden  from  him  the  change  that  was  going  on  in  the  nation. 

455.  Birth  of  a  Prince.  —  This  growth  of  unpopularity  and  dis- 
trust had  led  many  to  turn  their  thoughts  to  James's  successor. 
The  king  was  already  well  along  in  life  and  might  die  at  any 
time.  His  eldest  daughter,  Mary,  and  her  husband,  William, 
prince  of  Orange,  were  already  making  arrangements  for  their 
expected  inheritance  of  the  English  throne.  William's  represen- 
tative in  England  gave  assurances  to  the  leaders  of  various  parties 
and  religious  denominations  that  they  would  have  religious  toler- 
ation and  civil  freedom  when  the  princess  and  her  husband  came 
to  the  throne.  All  such  hopes  and  plans  were  brought  to  a  sud- 
den close  June  10,  1688,  two  days  after  the  arrest  of  the  bishops, 
by  the  birth  of  a  son  to  the  king  and  queen.  They  had  been  long 
married,  and  the  fear  on  the  part  of  the  people  that  there  might 
be  a  prince  who  would  be  brought  up  as  a  Catholic  to  succeed 
his  father  had  almost  disappeared.1  Now  it  seemed  probable 
that  this  would  take  place,  that  Mary  and  her  husband  would 
never  come  to  the  throne,  and  that  England  would  have  to  look 
forward  to  a  line  of  Catholic  rulers. 

1  According  to  the  rules  of  inheritance  of  the  English  crown  a  male 
child  takes  precedence  of  his  older  sisters. 


506  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

456.  Invitation  to  William  of  Orange.  — The  birth  of  the  king's 
son  changed  the  whole  situation.  There  was  no  advantage  now 
in  waiting  for  better  times.  If  there  was  to  be  any  opposition 
to  the  crown,  the  sooner  the  better.  A  group  of  prominent  men, 
some  bishops  and  some  noblemen,  some  Tories  and  some  Whigs, 
on  the  very  day  of  the  acquittal  of  the  seven  bishops  sent  an 
invitation  to  William  to  come  over  immediately  to  England  to 
preserve  its  liberties  against  the  attacks  of  the  king.  W'illiam 
had  now  become  stadtholder  of  the  Netherlands  and  was  engaged 
in  almost  constant  warfare  with  Louis  XIV  of  France.  The  vari- 
ous countries  of  Europe  were  pitted  against  one  another,  almost 
all  except  England  being  ranged  on  one  side  or  other  of  the  great 
struggle.  William  felt  this  to  be  a  golden  opportunity  to  gain 
control  of  England  and  bring  it  into  the  great  alliance  which  he 
was  re-forming  against  Louis.  He  therefore  immediately  began 
to  make  arrangements  for  an  invasion  of  England  in  the  interest 
of  the  discontented  subjects  of  James  and  of  his  wife's  candidacy 
for  the  throne.  He  sent  over  and  caused  to  be  scattered  through 
England  a  declaration  stating  the  grievances  of  the  English  people 
as  he  understood  them,  and  explaining  that  he  .was  coming  over 
to  call  a  free  parliament  and  to  protect  the  nation  against  the 
tyranny  of  its  king. 

The  eyes  of  the  king  were  at  last  opened.  He  realized  his 
position  and  began  rapidly  to  reverse  the  most  unpopular  of  his 
recent  acts.  He  restored  the  president  and  fellows  who  had  been 
expelled  from  Magdalen  College  and  the  bishops  and  clergymen 
who  had  been  suspended  from  their  positions.  He  abolished  the 
court  of  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  restored  the  charters  of  those 
towns  which  had  recently  been  deprived  of  them  by  the  courts, 
and  prepared  to  call  parliament.  But  it  was  too  late.  William 
was  on  the  sea  with  a  large  fleet  and  an  army  of  fourteen  thou- 
sand men,  the  king  had  lost  the  confidence  of  all  parties  of  the 
people,  and  his  concessions  were  taken  as  an  indication  of  his 
weakness,  not  of  a  change  of  opinions  or  intentions. 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF  1688      507 

457.  Landing  of  William. — On  November  5,  1688,  William 
landed  at  Tor  Bay,  in  the  southwest  of  England,  not  far  from 
where  Monmouth  had  disembarked  three  years  before.  The 
events  which  followed  in  this  case  were  vastly  different  from 
that  unfortunate  expedition.  William  was  a  trained  and  tried 
ruler,  a  general  with  a  high  military  reputation,  and  a  statesman 
with  the  complete  confidence  and  respect  of  his  subjects  in  Hol- 
land and  of  those  who  had  invited  him  into  England.  His  wife 
had  long  been  looked  upon  as  the  next  heir  to  the  throne,  and 
it  was  natural  to  anticipate  that  her  husband  would  exercise  much 
influence  over  her  and  over  the  country  of  which  she  was  queen. 
The  people  were  therefore  not  unprepared  to  receive  him. 

As  William  marched  towards  London  by  slow  stages,  with  his 
Dutch  army,  most  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  the  country 
through  which  he  passed  rode  to  his  camp  to  offer  their  ser- 
vices. Soon  throughout  the  whole  country  the  great  nobles 
began  to  announce  themselves  for  William,  and  they  in  turn 
received  promises  of  support  from  the  gentry  of  their  sections  of 
the  country.  James  marched  with  the  army  to  meet  William, 
but  many  of  his  officers  slipped  away  to  the  other  camp.  His 
personal  followers  and  courtiers  did  the  same  thing.  Even  his 
daughter  Anne  and  her  husband  and  some  of  the  most  intimate 
of  his  friends  deserted  him.  He  recognized  that  his  army  was 
untrustworthy,  and  at  Salisbury  halted  and  shortly  afterwards 
returned  almost  alone  to  London. 

From  this  time  James  lost  courage  and  spirit.  The  complete- 
ness with  which  all  classes  deserted  him  and  turned  towards  the 
invader,  and  the  neglect  with  which  he  was  personally  treated , 
astounded  him  and  he  attempted  no  further  resistance.  He 
opened  negotiations  with  William,  sent  his  wife  and  child  to 
France,  and  at  the  same  time  made  preparations  to  follow  them. 
But  he  still  hoped  that  in  some  way  he  might  regain  his  position 
and  power,  and  with  a  view  to  throwing  everything  into  confusion 
in  the  meantime  destroyed  the  writs  of  summons  for  parliament. 


508  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  dropped  the  great  seal  into  the  Thames.  Unfortunately,  as 
he  was  on  his  way  in  disguise  to  take  ship  to  go  to  France,  he 
was  recognized  by  some  sailors  and  brought  back  to  London. 
William  did  not  want  to  make  another  royal  martyr,  so  he  gave 
orders  that  James  should  be  furnished  with  every  facility  for  a 
more  successful  flight.  At  the  same  time  he  hastened  his  march 
to  London.  December  18,  1688,  James  left  for  France,  and  on 
the  same  day  William  took  up  his  dwelling  at  Whitehall. 

There  had  been  riots  in  London  and  the  country  was  without 
any  regular  government.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  to  do  some- 
thing to  reestablish  order  immediately.  William  called  together 
the  members  of  the  House  of  Lords,  all  the  members  who  had 
sat  in  the  House  of  Commons  during  any  of  the  parliaments  of 
Charles  II,  and  a  number  of  the  leading  men  of  London,  and 
asked  their  advice  as  to  what  should  be  done.  They  advised 
the  calling  of  a  convention,  which,  as  in  1660,  would  be  a  parlia- 
ment in  all  respects  •  except  that  the  summons  which  called  it 
together  would  lack  the  signature  and  the  seal  of  the  king.  This 
was  done.  William  sent  letters  to  all  the  county  and  town  author- 
ities, and  a  body  was  elected  and  gathered  at  London  that  was  a 
parliament  in  everything  except  name. 

458.  William  and  Mary  elected  to  the  Throne. — After  long 
debates  a  resolution  was  passed  by  this  convention  declaring  that 
"  King  James  II,  having  endeavored  to  subvert  the  constitution 
of  the  kingdom  by  breaking  the  original  contract  between  the 
king  and  the  people,  and  having  by  the  advice  of  Jesuits  and 
other  wicked  people  violated  the  fundamental  laws  and  withdrawn 
himself  out  of  the  kingdom,  the  throne  is  thereby  vacant."  This 
declaration  was  not  very  logical  and  not  strictly  true.  James  had 
not  abdicated  the  government,  and  his  withdrawal  was  not  the 
result  of  his  violation  of  the  laws,  but  of  an  armed  invasion.  But 
there  were  so  many  men  in  the  convention  who  had  preached  and 
taught  and  forced  others  to  acknowledge  that  resistance  to  the 
king  was  wrong  under  any  circumstances  that  it  was  hard  now  for 


RESTORATION  AND   REVOLUTION   OF  1688     509 


them  to  find  any  very  logical  excuse  for  their  action  in  resisting 
the  king.  By  common  consent  consistency  was  ignored  and  the 
doctrine  of  nonresistance  quietly  abandoned.  The  really  impor- 
tant declaration  of  the  resolution  was  that  made  in  its  last  clause, 
that  the  throne  was  vacant. 

This  being  so,  the  convention  passed  a  bill  offering  the  crown 
to  William  and  Mary  as  joint  sovereigns,  the  adminstration  of  the 
government  to  be  in  the  hands  of  William.  With  this  offer  they 
combined  a  declaration  of  rights  enumerating  the  actions  of  the 
late  king  which  they  considered 
illegal,  and  stating  their  expecta- 
tion that  the  new  king  and  queen 
would  agree  to  the  parliamentary 
view  of  them.  William  and  Mary 
accepted  the  crown  on  these 
terms  and  February  13,1689,  were 
proclaimed  king  and  queen  of 
England. 

459.  The  Revolution  of  1688. 
—  The  deposition  of  James  II 
and  the  elevation  of  William  and 
Mary  to  the  throne  by  act  of 
parliament  are  known  as  the 
"Revolution  of  1688."  The  revo- 
lution was  a  final  victory  of  parliament  and  the  people  whom 
parliament  represented  over  the  principle  of  absolute  monarchy. 
The  new  king  and  queen  and  their  successors  were  on  the  throne 
because  parliament  had  placed  them  there,  not  by  "divine  right." 
They  had  received  the  crown  on  certain  conditions  which  were 
set  forth  in  the  very  document  which  granted  to  them  their 
authority  as  sovereigns.  In  the  future  they  could  not  act  inde- 
pendently of  parliament,  because  the  same  power  that  had  placed 
them  on  the  throne  could  exercise  control  over  them  when  on 
the  throne.  The  revolution  therefore  settled  forever  that  the 


William  III 


510  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

will  of  the  ruler  must  be  subject  to  the  will  of  the  people  as 
expressed  in  parliament. 

In  other  respects  the  "  Glorious  Revolution,"  as  it  is  often 
called,  accomplished  less  than  has  been  sometimes  claimed  for  it. 
No  new  classes  were  given  the  right  to  vote  and  there  was  no 
effort  to  represent  the  people  more  completely  in  parliament.  It 
brought  few  if  any  advantages  to  the  common  people.  It  was  a 
very  successful  revolution,  but  not  one  that  extended  very  deeply 
or  affected  very  many  of  the  interests  of  the  people.  Nor  was  it 
a  very  high-minded  revolution.  The  general  desertion  of  James 
by  the  army,  the  nobles,  and  gentry,  and  even  by  those  who  owed 
all  their  fortunes  to  him  and  who  had  been  in  daily  intercourse 
with  him,  was  ungenerous  and  disloyal.  Many  of  those  also  who 
now  betrayed  him  and  took  the  part  of  William,  afterwards,  when 
there  seemed  some  possibility  of  his  return  to  England,  made 
secret  agreements  with  him  by  messenger  or  letter,  promising  to 
give  him  their  aid  if  he  should  get  back.  Thus  they  were  twice 
betrayers.  Among  the  men  who  carried  out  the  Revolution  of 
1688  there  was  little  or  none  of  that  devotion  to  high  principles 
and  ideals  which  governed  the  Puritans  who  resisted  Charles  I  in 
the  Long  Parliament,  and  the  royalists  who  sacrificed  property 
and  life  to  the  support  of  the  king  in  the  Great  Rebellion. 

460.  The  Bill  of  Rights.  — After  the  new  king  and  queen  had 
been  crowned  they  transformed  the  convention  into  a  regular  par- 
liament, and  it  proceeded  to  pass  various  bills.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  these  was  the  "  Bill  of  Rights,"  which  was  a  reenactment 
in  the  form  of  statute  law  of  the  declaration  of  rights  accepted  by 
William  and  Mary  the  year  before.  Some  of  the  most  important 
of  the  thirteen  clauses  of  the  act  were  the  following : 

That  the  pretended  power  of  dispensing  with  laws  or  the  execution  of 
laws  by  regal  authority,  as  it  hath  been  assumed  and  exercised  of  late,  is 
illegal. 

.  That  it  is  the  right  of  the  subjects  to  petition  the  king;  and  all  com 
mitments  and  prosecutions  for  such  petitioning  are  illegal. 


RESTORATION  AND   REVOLUTION   OF   1688     511 

That  the  raising  or  keeping  a  standing  army  within  the  kingdom  in  time 
of  peace,  unless  it  be  with  the  consent  of  parliament,  is  against  law. 

That  election  of  members  to  parliament  ought  to  be  free. 

That  the  freedom  of  speech  and  debates  or  proceedings  in  parliament 
ought  not  to  be  impeached  or  questioned  in  any  court  or  place  out  of  par- 
liament. 

That  excessive  bail  ought  not  to  be  required  nor  excessive  fines  imposed 
nor  cruel  and  unusual  punishments  inflicted. 

And  that  for  redress  of  all  grievances  and  for  the  amending,  strengthen- 
ing, and  preserving  of  the  laws,  parliaments  ought  to  be  held  frequently. 

The  Bill  of  Rights  of  1689  should  be  classed  with  the  Great 
Charter  of  1215  and  the  Petition  of  Right  of  1629  as  the  three 
most  important  and  fundamental  documents  which  define  the 
English  constitution.  It  has  also  been  copied  into  the  amend- 
ments to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  and  into  various 
other  written  constitutions.  But  it  must  always  be  remembered 
that  the  English  constitution  is  not  a  written  document  like  that 
of  the  United  States  and  those  of  most  other  modern  countries. 
The  English  constitution  is  merely  the  form  of  government  of 
England,  and  this  has  been  a  matter  of  gradual  growth,  some- 
times settled  by  definite  laws,  more  often  defined  only  by  custom. 
Originally  the  king  had  practically  all  rights  and  powers  of  govern- 
ment, and  the  three  great  laws  mentioned  above  are  so  important 
because  they  have  restricted  the  despotism  or  the  misgovernment 
of  the  king,  and  thus  allowed  the  people  to  govern  themselves 
through  parliament  and  in  accordance  with  law. 

461.  Annual  Taxes  and  the  Mutiny  Act.  —  Some  other  ques- 
tions of  dispute  or  doubt  were  settled  immediately  after  the 
revolution  in  such  a  way  as  to  increase  the  powers  of  parlia- 
ment. A  large  proportion  of  the  taxes  which  had  formerly  been 
granted  for  the  king's  life  were  now  authorized  only  for  a  year 
at  a  time.  William  was  very  angry  at  this  restriction,  but  finally 
accepted  it.  Since  that  time,  although  no  formal  statute  has 
been  passed  requiring  that  parliament  should  meet  every  year, 
an  annual  meeting  is  practically  necessary,  for  if  parliament  did 


512  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

not  meet  the  taxes  could  not  be  collected  and  there  would  be 
no  money  to  pay  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government. 

Still  in  the  same  year,  1689,  the  Mutiny  Act  was  passed  for 
the  organization  and  discipline  of  the  army.  It  consisted  of  a 
special  act  appropriating  money  for  the  payment  of  the  troops, 
and  authorizing  the  use  of  martial  law  for  one  year  only.  Since 
that  time  it  has  been  renewed  every  year;  and  here  again,  if 
parliament  did  not  meet  in  any  year,  the  army  could  not  be  held 
together,  at  least  legally,  for  there  would  be  no  martial  law  in 
existence.  Parliament  thus  secured  control  of  the  army  and  at 
the  same  time  made  its  own  annual  summons  certain. 

462.  The  Toleration  Act.  —  The  old  religious  questions  were 
brought  somewhat  nearer  a  solution.  An  attempt  was  made,  as 
had  been  suggested  and  even  tried  several  times  before,  to  pass 
a  Comprehension  Bill.  This  was  a  plan  to  change  the  prayer 
book  and  the  rules  of  the  church  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  the 
Dissenters  willing  to  conform  to  them.  The  established  church 
would  thereby  have  been  made  more  comprehensive.  But  now, 
as  before  and  since,  no  way  could  be  found  to  accomplish  it. 
No  changes  that  the  Episcopalians  were  willing  to  make  went 
far  enough  for  the  Presbyterians  and  other  Dissenters.  In 
accordance  with  the  promises  of  William  and  of  leading  church 
of  England  men,  a  toleration  act  was  therefore  passed,  allowing 
the  Dissenters  to  form  congregations  and  worship  publicly  in  their 
own  way.  It  also  allowed  Quakers  to  affirm  instead  of  having  to 
take  an  oath.  This  toleration  did  not  include  Roman  Catholics 
or  any  who  did  not  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Christ,  nor  did  it 
allow  any  but  church  of  England  men  to  hold  office.  Neverthe- 
less even  those  who  were  not  given  formal  freedom  of  worship 
were  not  persecuted.  The  times  had  changed ;  a  more  tolerant 
spirit  was  growing  up  in  all  things.  The  Jews,  after  being 
excluded  from  England  for  centuries,  had  begun  to  come  in, 
from  the  time  of  Cromwell,  though  without  legal  authorization, 
and  they  were  by  this  time  quite  numerous.  They  were  well 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF    1688      513 

treated,  though  not  politically  or  socially  recognized.  Roman 
Catholics  had  their  own  services  in  private,  and  little  by  little 
began  to  resume  a  public  and  recognized  existence. 

463.  Liberty  of  the  Press.  —  A  few  years  after  the  revolution 
all  restrictions  on  freedom  of  printing,  except  the  ordinary  libel 
and  sedition  laws,  were  taken  off.     This  was  not  done  with  any 
great  formality  or   realization  of  the  greatness  of   the   change. 
Various  plans  for  the  control  of  books  and  papers  issued  from 
the  press  had  been  tried  since  the  invention  of  printing.     At  one 
time  the  Star  Chamber  issued  ordinances  and  examined  proposed 
publications  ;  at  another  the  work  was  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop 
of  London.     For  a  number  of  years  acts  of  parliament  had  been 
passed   from   time   to  time,  known  as  "  licensing  acts,"  which 
authorized  the  appointment  of  an  official  licenser  without  whose 
approval  no  book  or  newspaper  could  be  published.     In  1695 
parliament  defeated  the  licensing  act  of  the  year,  and  none  was 
ever  afterwards  introduced.    The  press,  like  religious  worship  and 
many  other  things,  had  become  free  with  the  downfall  of  the 
Tudor  and  Stuart  arbitrary  government  and  the  widespread  beliefs 
and  feelings  which  had  supported  it. 

464.  Summary  of  the  Period  from  1660  to  1689.  — The  resto- 
ration which  took  place  in  1660  was  not  only  a  restoration  of  the 
old  line  of  kings,  it  was  a  restoration  of  parliament,  of  the  estab- 
lished church,  and  of  old  customs.     People  were  glad  to  get  back 
to  their  old  habits,  and  accepted  Charles  II  as  part  of  the  old  con- 
dition of  things.     No  restrictions  were  imposed  upon  him,  but  prac- 
tically his  powers  were  very  much  limited.    Just  how  great  this 
limitation  was  it  took  all  his  reign  and  that  of  his  brother  to  find  out. 
At  first  there  were  no  bounds  to  the  loyalty  of  parliament  and 
that  of  the  majority  of  the  people  ;  then  there  was  a  period  when 
the  favor  shown  by  Charles  to  the  Catholics  awakened  the  oppo- 
sition of  parliament  and  the  fears  of  the  people ;  after  this  came 
a  third  period  in  which  parliament  and  the  people,  in  their  dread 
of  a  return  of  civil  war,  again  turned  to  the  support  of  the  king. 


514  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Charles  generally  showed  good  judgment  and  ended  his  reign 
in  peace  and  popularity.  James  showed  very  bad  judgment.  Be- 
tween 1685  and  1688  he  exercised  all  the  old  arbitrary  principles 
of  government  in  an  obstinate  effort  to  put  Roman  Catholics 
on  an  equality  with  Protestants  when  the  great  majority  of  the 
people  were  entirely  opposed  to  it.  His  deposition  followed, 
and  the  election  of  William  and  Mary  in  1688  and  the  adoption  of 
the  Bill  of  Rights  in  1689  marked  the  final  success  of  parliament 
in  its  effort  to  control  government. 

During  the  Restoration  period  the  Episcopal  church  was  estab- 
lished more  firmly  than  ever.  Catholics  on  the  one  hand  and 
Dissenters  on  the  other  were  shut  out  from  all  offices  and  even  pro- 
hibited from  worshiping  according  to  their  own  ideas.  Only  after 
the  revolution  did  parliament  grudgingly  pass  a  bill  for  toleration. 

In  foreign  affairs  England  held  but  a  low  position  compared 
with  what  she  had  occupied  under  Elizabeth  or  Cromwell. 
Charles  and  James  had  both  been  willing  to  receive  money  gifts 
from  the  king  of  France  rather  than  to  assert  the  proper  position 
of  their  country. 

General  Reading.  —  MACAULAY,  History  of  England,  Vols.  I  and  II,  is 
the  standard  history  of  this  period.  His  brilliancy  of  description  and 
grace  of  language  are  well  known.  His  statements  of  fact  are  mainly 
correct,  but  his  analysis  of  the  characters  and  motives  of  men  are  not  to 
be  taken  too  seriously.  They  are  usually  the  mere  personal  views  of  a 
man  of  a  naturally  partisan  mind.  He  exaggerates  the  importance  of 
the  Revolution  of  1688.  RANKE,  English  History,  Vols.  Ill  and  IV,  is  a 
fairer  history  of  the  period.  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  ix,  sects.  1-7. 
MACAULAY,  Sir  William  Temple  and  Sir  James  Mackintosh  are  valuable 
essays.  AIRY,  The  English  Restoration  and  Louis  XIV,  and  HALE,  The 
Fall  of  the  Stuarts  and  Western  Europe  from  1678  to  1697.  MAHAN, 
Influence  of  the  Sea  Power  upon  History,  chaps,  i-iii. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  EVELYN'S  and  PEPYS'S  Diaries  are  of  great 
contemporary  interest  and  value.  The  Bill  of  Rights  is  printed  in  ADAMS 
and  STEPHENS,  Select  Documents,  No.  239,  and  in  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  19. 
DRYDEN,  Annus  Mirabilis,  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  and  The  Hind  and  the 
Panther,  and  DEFOE,  History  of  the  Great  Plague  of  London,  are  valuable. 


RESTORATION   AND   REVOLUTION   OF  1688      515 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  SCOTT,  Peveril  of  the  Peak,  Old  Mortality,  The 
Pirate,  and  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor  belong  to  this  period.  BLACK- 
MORE,  Lorna  Doone  ;  CONAN  DOYLE,  Micah  Clarke  ;  and  Miss  YONGE,  The 
Danvers  Papers,  are  stories  of  Monmouth's  rising. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  The  Great  Fire,  PEPYS,  Diary,  September  22,  1666, 
and  EVELYN,  Diary  ;  (2)  Scientific  Knowledge  in  the  Restoration  Period, 
TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  403-408 ;  (3)  Literature  of  the 
Restoration,  ibid.,  pp.  422-438 ;  (4)  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  GREEN,  Short 
History,  chap,  ix,  sect.  2  ;  (5)  Shaftesbury,  ibid.,  sects.  4  and  5 ;  (6)  the 
Reaction  from  Puritanism,  ibid.,  sect,  i ;  (7)  the  Massacre  of  Glencoe,  KEN- 
DALL, Source-Book,  No.  102  ;  (8)  Influence  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  on  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  ADAMS  and  STEPHENS,  Select  Documents, 
No.  239,  or  Old  South  Leaflets,  No.  19,  and  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
Amendments  i-io;  (9)  Coffee-houses,  COLBY,  Selections  from  the  Sources, 
No.  79. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE   BRITISH  EMPIRE 

1689-1763 

465.  The  Battle  of  the  Boyne.  —  William  had  to  fight  for  his 
new  crown.  Although  he  was  declared  by  the  English  parliament 
to  be  king  of  Scotland  and  Ireland  as  well  as  of  England,  his 
acknowledgment  in  those  countries  was  not  as  easily  obtained  as 
it  had  been  in  England.  Yet  it  was  pretty  certain  that  if  James 
remained  king  of  either  Scotland  or  Ireland,  he  would  soon  regain 
the  English  crown  as  well,  and  William  recognized  that  he  must 
hold  all  three  British  countries  or  none.  The  most  prompt  and 
decisive  struggle  was  in  Ireland.  The  deposed  king  secured 
some  aid  from  France  and  came  over  to  Ireland,  counting  on  the 
support  of  the  Catholic  nobility  and  peasantry  of  that  country 
and  of  the  officials  whom  he  had  appointed  there  before  his 
deposition.  He  was  not  disappointed.  When  he  arrived  he 
found  a  volunteer  army  awaiting  him.  The  Irish  parliament 
acknowledged  his  claim  and  the  whole  country  soon  declared  for 
him,  except  a  few  towns  inhabited  almost  entirely  by  English 
and  Scotch  settlers.  He  tried  to  bring  those  to  submission  by 
force.  Londonderry  and  Enniskillen,  the  two  principal  Protestant 
towns,  were  subjected  to  sieges,  but  showed  noble  endurance 
through  months  of  close  investment  and  repeated  attacks.  Soon 
William  with  his  Dutch  officers  and  veteran  army  came  over  to 
Ireland  and  marched  to  meet  his  rival.  The  two  armies  met  at 
the  river  Boyne,  July  i,  1690.  A  decisive  battle  was  fought  in 
which  the  army  of  James  was  defeated  and  scattered  and  he  him- 
self forced  to  flee  to  France. 

516 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       517 

466.  The  Reconquest  of  Ireland.  — James  had  not  borne  him- 
self very  well  in  the  field,  and  an  Irish  gentleman  after  the  battle 
called  to  the  English,  "  Change  leaders  with  us  and  we  will  fight 
you  again."  But  the  revolt  of  Ireland  was  not  dependent  on  his 
leadership.  The  spirit  of  liberty  of  the  Irish  people  was  aroused 
and  they  continued  their  resistance  to  William  on  their  own 
account,  even  after  James  had  retired  to  the  continent.  William 
seized  Dublin  and  besieged  and  captured  a  number  of  Irish  towns, 
but  his  army  suffered  much  from  the  long  sieges,  the  bad  weather, 
and  the  attacks  of  the  Irish  army,  which  was  led  by  an  able  and 
beloved  Irish  officer,  Patrick  Sarsfield.  In  the  fall  William  had 
to  return  to  England,  but  the  next  year,  1691,  those  whom  he  had 
left  behind  finally  scattered  the  Irish  army  and  captured  Limerick, 
the  last  important  Irish  city  to  hold  out.  Ireland  was  thus  once 
more  conquered,  as  she  had  been  so  often  before,  after  an  unsuc- 
cessful struggle  for  independence.  Her  struggle  in  this  case  was 
not,  however,  an  entire  failure.  In  order  to  obtain  the  surrender 
of  Limerick,  Ginkell,  the  Dutch  general  commanding  the  English 
army,  had  been  forced  to  grant  very  favorable  terms.  All  the  Irish 
who  wished  to  go  over  sea  and  enter  the  French  service  were 
allowed  to  do  so.  About  twelve  thousand  Irishmen,  many  of 
them  noblemen  and  officers,  took  advantage  of  this  opportunity 
and  frequently  afterwards  fought  against  the  English  as  part  of 
the  French  army.  The  history  of  Ireland  was  much  influenced 
by  this  emigration.  After  this  time  the  natural  leaders  of  her 
people  were  gone,  and  the  names  of  Irish  families  became  promi- 
nent in  the  annals  of  France,  Spain,  and  other  Catholic  powers 
on  the  continent,  while  Ireland  herself  remained  to  a  great  extent 
a  nation  of  peasants. 

In  the  second  place  it  was  agreed  in  the  treaty  that  the  Irish 
should  be  allowed  to  exercise  their  own  religion,  as  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II,  when  the  Roman  Catholics  had  been  put  practically 
on  an  equality  with  the  Protestants.  This  part  of  the  agreement 
was  not  carried  out.  An  Irish  parliament,  which  now  included 


518  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

only  Protestants,  protested  against  this  clause,  and  William  dis- 
owned it.  Limerick  has  since  been  known  to  Irishmen  as  "  the 
city  of  the  broken  treaty."  For  more  than  a  century  to  come  the 
Catholic  population  of  Ireland  was  terribly  oppressed  and  perse- 
cuted by  the  English  government  and  .by  the  small  minority  of 
Protestant  settlers  in  Ireland  of  English  or  Scotch  birth. 

467.  Resistance  in  Scotland;  the  Massacre  of  Glencoe.  —  In 
Scotland  a  parliament,  somewhat  irregularly  constituted,  accepted 
the  revolution  and  acknowledged  William.  Episcopacy,  which 
had  lately  been  reintroduced,  was  immediately  abolished  and 
Presbyterianism  and  the  Westminster  Confession  reestablished. 
But  some  of  the  nobles  and  others  refused  to  agree  to  the  depo- 
sition of  James,  seceded  from  parliament,  and  dashed  away  to  the 
north  to  rouse  the  Highlanders  in  favor  of  the  old  king.1  William 
sent  an  army  to  Scotland  to  meet  them,  but  the  Highlanders 
defeated  it  at  Killiecrankie.  The  leader  of  the  Jacobite  army, 
Viscount  Dundee,  was,  however,,  killed  on  the  battlefield,  and  the 
army  soon  afterwards  went  to  pieces.  With  great  shrewdness 
William's  government  distributed  a  considerable  sum  of  money 
among  the  poor  Scottish  clan  chieftains  and  thus  detached  them 
from  their  party.  Edinburgh  Castle  was  held  for  awhile  by  the 
adherents  of  James,  but  it  finally  surrendered  and  by  the  year 
1691  all  open  resistance  ceased  in  Scotland  as  it  had  in  Ireland. 

One  unfortunate  scene  of  the  drama  remained  to  be  played. 
A  proclamation  was  issued  requiring  all  those  who  had  risen 
under  Dundee  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  take  an  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  new  king  by  the  last  day  of  the  year  1691,  or  else 
be  treated  as  rebels  in  arms  against  the  government.  This  was 
yielded  to  with  more  or  less  willingness  by  almost  all  the  high- 
land clans.  But  the  head  of  one  small  branch  of  the  McDonalds, 

1  This  created  the  "  Jacobite  "  party,  so  called  from  Jacobus,  the  Latin 
form  of  the  name  James.  The  well-known  song  "  Bonnie  Dundee  "  refers 
to  this  occurrence.  Many  other  stirring  Scotch  songs  express  the  senti- 
ments of  the  Jacobites. 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       519 


living  in  a  valley  called  Glencoe,  had  in  a  spirit  of  defiance  post- 
poned making  his  submission  till  the  very  last  day,  so  as  to  be 
known  as  the  last  man  to  submit.  Then'  he  was  astonished  and 
alarmed  to  find  that  there  was  no  one  in  reach  who  had  the  power 
to  receive  his  oath.  He  was  forced  to  make  a  long  trip  through 
the  snow-covered  mountains,  and  only  succeeded  in  reaching 
Inverary  and  inducing  the  sheriff  to  receive  his  oath  on  the  6th 
of  January.  This  somewhat  belated  submission  might  certainly 
have  been  pardoned  under  the  circumstances.  Instead  a  punish- 
ment was  meted  out  to  the  neglectful  clan  which  has  ever  since 
remained  one  of  the 
dark  spots  in  history. 
Like  other  Scottish 
clans,  they  had  in 
times  past  swept 
cattle  from  the  low- 
lands and  killed  men 
in  the  contests  con- 
nected with  such  ex- 
peditions, and  thus 
made  themselves 
chargeable  with  other 
crimes  besides  that 

of  the  delayed  submission.  A  warrant  was  signed  by  William 
authorizing  the  extermination  of  the  whole  body  of  inhabitants 
of  Glencoe,  —  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  persons.  Soon  afterwards 
a  regiment  of  soldiers  appeared  in  the  glen  under  the  command 
of  a  member  of  a  rival  clan,  but  a  relative  of  the  wife  of  McDonald, 
and  acting  in  every  respect  in  a  friendly  way.  They  were  received 
unsuspectingly  by  the  clansmen  and  lived  in  their  houses  as  their 
guests  amid  much  merrymaking  for  two  weeks.  Then  early  one 
morning  the  soldiers,  in  obedience  to  the  orders  of  their  officers, 
fell  suddenly  upon  those  who  had  so  lately  been  their  hosts,  and 
proceeded  to  kill  men,  women,  and  children  indiscriminately.  In 


Glencoe  :  the  Scene  of  the  Massacre 


520  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  bloody  massacre  some  forty  or  fifty  were  killed  outright ;  as 
many  more,  principally  women  and  children  who  escaped  in  the 
darkness,  died  of  cold  and  starvation  on  the  desolate  mountains ; 
while  the  others  escaped  altogether.  Their  houses  were  then 
plundered  and  burned  and  their  cattle  driven  off.  The  responsi- 
bility for  the  massacre  of  Glencoe  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
discussion.  The  immediate  action  was  certainly  due  to  Sir  John 
Dalrymple,  Master  of  Stair,  the  king's  principal  minister  in  Scot- 
land, who  was  hostile  to  the  McDonald  clan  and  took  this 
opportunity  for  revenge.  Yet  William  signed  the  order,  and 
although  all  the  facts  may  not  have  been  told  him,  and  he  may 
have  relied  on  the  judgment  of  his  advisers,  he  made  himself 
responsible  for  the  action  by  supporting  the  perpetrators  of  it. 
The  whole  story  of  treachery  and  cold-blooded  atrocity  is  rather 
to  be  looked  upon  as  sad  testimony  to  the  barbarity  of  the  times 
than  proof  of  the  especial  cruelty  of  any  one  man. 

468.  England  and  France Ireland  and  Scotland  had  been 

secured  by  William,  but  the  deposed  king  had  an  ally  in  Louis  XIV 
of  France,  who  now  determined  to  give  him  help  to  invade  Eng- 
land itself.  War  with  France  was  inevitable,  even  if  James  had 
not  sought  and  obtained  help  from  that  country  in  his  effort  to  get 
back  the  throne.  Feeling  in  England  had  long  been  rising  slowly 
into  a  settled  hostility  to  France.  This  was  due  to  three  causes. 
In  the  first  place,  France  had  become  the  protector  of  the  Cath- 
olics of  Europe,  as  Spain  had  been  a  century  before,  and  had 
threatened  to  assist  Charles  and  James  in  emancipating  the  Eng- 
lish Roman  Catholics.  Secondly,  England  and  France  were 
brought  into  conflict  by  the  jealousy  between  their  colonists  in 
India  and  America.  Thirdly,  the  English  shared  to  a  certain 
extent  that  general  feeling  of  alarm  in  Europe  at  the  steadily 
growing  military  and  naval  power  of  France  which  threatened  to 
make  the  whole  of  Europe  dependent  on  that  country. 

The  accession  of  William  of  Orange  to  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land, therefore,  precipitated  a  war  which  was  already  imminent 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       521 

William  had  long  been  the  special  champion  of  resistance  to  the 
overweening  ambition  of  France,  and  as  stadtholder  of  Holland 
he  had  been  engaged  for.  years  in  a  deadly  conflict  with  Louis  XIV. 
The  help  given  by  Louis  to  James  transformed  this  contest,  which 
William  was  waging  on  general  European  principles,  into  a  national 
English  struggle.  War  with  France  was  from  this  time  forward  a 
repeated  occurrence.  The  first  of  these  struggles  began  immedi- 
ately. William  having  declared  war  at  the  request  of  parliament, 
an  alliance  was  formed  comprising  the  somewhat  unfamiliar  allies, 
England,  Holland,  Spain,  and  the  German  Empire.  Hostilities 
had  already  begun  when  the  alliance  was  signed. 

469.  First  War  with  France. — While  the  struggles  had  been 
taking  place  in  Ireland  and  Scotland  the  French  had  sent  a  fleet 
of  eighty  vessels  to  attack  the  coast  of  England  on  their  own 
account  as  well  as  in  the  interests  of  James.  In  1690  they  gained 
a  victory  over  a  combined  Dutch  and  English  fleet  off  Beachy 
Head  and  burned  part  of  the  town  of  Teignmouth.  Two  years 
afterwards  another  French  fleet,  still  larger  and  better  equipped, 
met  an  English  fleet  near  La  Hogue  on  the  French  coast.  This 
time  the  English,  after  a  three  days'  battle,  were  victorious,  the 
French  fleet  was  scattered,  and  England  saved  from  invasion. 
This  was  the  greatest  naval  battle  since  the  Armada.  It  was  a 
doubly  important  victory,  for  it  discouraged  Louis,  who  after  this 
more  and  more  neglected  the  navy  for  his  armies,  and  the  English 
and  Dutch  fleets  protected  the  Channel  without  difficulty. 

England  was  now  safe  from  invasion,  and  the  later  battles  were 
for  the  general  objects  of  the  war,  and  not  merely  to  keep  the  new 
king  on  the  throne.  These  battles  were  fought  on  the  continent, 
on  the  border  between  France  and  the  Netherlands,  William  being 
in  command  of  the  allied  armies.  Successive  battles  went  in 
favor  of  the  French,  though  William  was  so  skillful  in  reorganizing 
his  defeated  troops  that  the  French  obtained  comparatively  little 
advantage  from  their  victories.  William  was  able  to  keep  troops 
in  the  field  for  an  indefinite  time,  for  he  was  provided  plentifully 


522  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

with  money  from  England.  This  made  it  possible  to  block  the 
progress  of  the  French,  who  were  finding  it  more  and  more  diffi- 
cult to  secure  funds  for  their  constant  and  expensive  warfare.  In 
1695  William  was  successful  in  capturing  from  the  French  the  city 
and  fortress  of  Namur  in  the  Netherlands.  It  was  the  first  time 
in  fifty-two  years  that  the  French  had  lost  a  battle  or  allowed  one 
of  their  fortified  towns  to  be  captured,  and  it  indicated  that  the 
tide  of  success  was  turning  against  them,  at  least  for  the  time. 
Two  years  afterwards,  therefore,  in  1697,  a  general  European 
peace  was  agreed  upon.  The  treaty  is  known  as  the  "  Peace  of 
Ryswick,"  from  the  little  Dutch  town  where  it  was  signed.  It  was 
on  the  whole  favorable  to  William,  as  by  it  he  was  recognized  as 
king  of  England,  and  the  French  surrendered  to  their  previous 
owners  all  the  places  which  they  had  conquered  during  the  war. 

470.  Personal  Position  of  William.  — William  was  less  successful 
in  obtaining  the  affection  and  loyalty  of  his  English  subjects  than 
he  was  in  securing  his  position  on  the  throne  and  in  carrying  out  his 
designs  in  Europe.  He  was,  in  the  first  place,  a  foreigner,  and 
the  English  have  never  been  fond  of  foreigners.  He  was  a  cold, 
silent,  almost  gloomy  man,  without  any  of  that  cheerful  humor 
and  habit  of  pleasantry  which  had  gained  popularity  for  many  an 
English  sovereign  who  had  few  other  claims  to  the  good  will  of 
his  subjects.  He  was  hard-working,  true  to  his  word,  patriotic, 
and  wise ;  but  he  was  so  deeply  interested  in  his  statesmanlike 
projects  that  he  had  little  time  for  those  lighter  interests  which 
make  up  an  attractive  royal  court  and  even  interest  and  please 
those  classes  which  have  little  part  in  them.  He  was  valued  and 
respected  in  England,  but  never  loved  or  received  with  enthusi- 
asm. Six  years  after  William  and  Mary  had  been  crowned  the 
queen  died,  to  the  king's  sincere  sorrow  and  to  the  loss  of  much 
of  the  affection  in  which  they  had  both  been  held  for  her  sake. 
Almost  the  only  permanent  memorial  of  Mary's  part  in  the  govern- 
ment is  the  foundation  of  Greenwich  Hospital.  Charles  II  had 
begun  the  building  of  a  grand  palace  at  Greenwich  on  the  Thames 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       523 

a  few  miles  below  London,  but  it  had  never  been  finished.  Its 
situation  did  not  suit  William's  delicate  health,  and  the  queen 
took  up  the  task  of  completing  it,  and  then  endowed  it  as  an 
asylum  for  disabled  sailors. 

William's  position  as  king  was  probably  as  unattractive  to  him 
as  his  personality  was  to  his  subjects.  He  did  not  trust  the 
English  noblemen  and  ministers  who  surrounded  him,  and  his 
distrust  was  fully  justified.  His  lack  of  popularity  had  made  it 
seem  possible  at  various  times  that  he  might  either  lose  his  throne 
or  abdicate  it  voluntarily.  A  number  of  the  prominent  men  of 
the  country,  therefore,  tried  to  make  good  their  future  fortunes  by 
giving  secret  promises  to  James  to  bring  about  his  return,  if  there 
should  prove  to  be  any  chance  of  it.  William  learned  of  these 
instances  of  secret  offers  of  assistance  to  James  one  after  another, 
till  he  felt  that  there  was  no  one  at  the  court  whom  he  could  trust 
except  his  own  Dutch  friends  and  officers.  These  he  advanced  to 
highly  paid  places  and  rewarded  with  titles  and  estates.  By  this 
action  he  still  further  increased  the  discontent  of  Englishmen. 

Besides  these  men  who  were  trying  to  carry  water  on  both 
shoulders  a  Jacobite  party  existed,  consisting  of  those  who  had 
never  favored  the  expulsion  of  James  or  were  now  for  one  reason 
or  another  strongly  in  favor  of  his  return.  They  had  a  standing 
offer  from  the  king  of  France  to  send  over  troops  if  they  would 
first  bring  about  an  insurrection  in  England,  but  the  whole  reign 
of  William  drifted  by  without  any  good  opportunity  arriving.  In 
1696  a  Jacobite  plot  to  assassinate  him  was  discovered  and  several 
persons  tried  and  executed.  The  general  preference  of  the  nation 
for  William  and  his  system  of  government  was  shown  at  this  time 
by  the  "  Association,"  which  was  signed  by  thousands  throughout 
the  country,  as  was  done  when  Elizabeth  was  threatened  with 
assassination,  declaring  that  in  case  he  was  murdered  the  signers 
would  support  the  princess  Anne,  not  James. 

471.  Political  Position  of  William. — William  had  frequently 
to  feel  the  tight  rein  kept  upon  him  by  parliament.  In  most 


524  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

countries  of  Europe  the  king  at  this  time  was  a  ruler  with  unlim- 
ited powers.  In  England  the  rebellion  and  the  revolution  had 
placed  the  center  of  gravity  of  government  in  parliament,  not  in 
the  king.  Parliament  was  by  no  means  loath  to  use  the  newly  won 
extension  of  its  powers.  The  Bill  of  Rights,  the  yearly  grant 
of  the  revenue,  and  the  passage  of  the  Mutiny  Act  showed  its 
intention  to  restrict  the  powers  of  the  king.  The  moment  the 
Peace  of  Ryswick  was  signed  parliament  insisted  on  a  reduction 
of  the  army.  It  did  not  like  its  expense,  and  according  to 
old  experience  dreaded  its  retention  lest  it  should  give  the  king 
greater  personal  powers.  William  believed  that  the  keeping  up 
of  a  large  army  was  necessary  to  force  Louis 
to  keep  the  treaty  and  to  be  ready  for  the 
next  war  which  should  break  out.  He  had  to 
give  way,  however,  and  the  army  was  reduced 
to  seven  thousand  men,  leaving  out  of  the 
service  even  the  Dutch  guards  of  the  king. 
William  was  so  vexed  that  he  seriously  planned 
Royal  Arms  of  Wil-  to  abdicate  the  throne  and  return  to  Holland, 
liam  and  Mary,  in-  parHament  also  remonstrated  against  and 
eluding  the  Lion  of  .  .  ,  .  .  ,  ,  .  . 

H  ,,     ,  even  withdrew  grants  of  crown  land  which 

William  had  lavishly  made  to  certain  Dutch 
military  officers,  ministers,  and  favorites  in  his  service.  The  com- 
plicated treaties  into  which  he  had  entered  with  foreign  countries 
were  also  much  criticised  in  parliament,  and  four  of  his  ministers 
were  impeached  by  the  House  of  Commons,  though  they  were 
supported  and  protected  by  the  House  of  Lords. 

472.  Party  Government. — The  power  of  parliament  was  no 
doubt  made  greater  by  the  existence  of  the  two  great  political 
parties.  Usually  either  the  Whigs  or  the  Tories  had  a  decided 
majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  acted  in  important 
matters  according  to  the  principles  or  the  policy  of  that  party. 
The  Tories  wanted  peace  abroad  and  the  continued  control  of  the 
established  church  and  of  the  landholding  gentry  at  home.  The 


FOUNDATION   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       525 

Whigs,  who  were  in  a  majority  during  the  early  part  of  William's 
reign,  were  more  inclined  to  keep  up  the  army  and  the  foreign 
war,  to  extend  toleration  in  religion,  and  to  favor  the  interests  of 
the  merchant  class.  In  lesser  matters  parliament  did  not  act  very 
consistently,  because  the  attendance  was  apt  to  be  irregular  and 
few  devices  had  yet  been  invented  to  keep  the  majority  together. 
At  first  William,  like  Washington  in  his  first  administration,  chose 
his  ministers  from  both  parties,  on  the  ground  that  both  parties 
had  joined  to  bring  him  into  power.  But  the  plan  did  not  work 
well.  There  were  constant  disputes  among  the  ministers  and 
they  did  not  get  along  well  with  parliament.  In  1694,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Sunderland,  a  shrewd  statesman,  he  dismissed  the 
Tories  and  chose  his  ministers  from  the  Whig  party  alone. 

Now  the  ministers  and  the  majority  in  parliament  were  of  the 
same  party,  and  everything  went  along  much  more  smoothly.  The 
Whig  members  of  parliament  attended  more  regularly,  because  if 
they  did  so,  and  thus  helped  the  ministers,  they  were  rewarded  by 
appointments  to  office  and  other  favors.  If  the  ministry  found 
the  Whig  majority  in  parliament  becoming  slender,  they  could 
and  unfortunately  did  keep  it  together  for  some  time  longer  by 
paying  members  to  vote  for  the  measures  they  wanted  passed. 
The  practice  of  bribery  was  on  the  increase.  Ministers  not  only 
gave  bribes  to  members  of  parliament  but  also  got  rich  them- 
selves by  receiving  bribes  for  their  favor. 

By  choosing  all  his  ministers  from  one  party  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  along  better  with  parliament,  William  probably  did  not 
realize  that  he  was  making  them  his  masters  and  putting  still 
more  power  into  the  hands  both  of  ministers  and  of  parliament. 
But  he  soon  discovered  that  he  had  done  so.  When  the  Tories 
obtained  a  majority  in  parliament  and  insisted  on  a  change  of 
policy,  the  king,  in  order  not  to  be  in  constant  conflict  with  parlia- 
ment, found  it  necessary  to  allow  the  most  prominent  of  his  Whig 
ministers  to  resign  and  to  appoint  Tory  ministers  in  their  places. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  a  group  of  ministers  of  the  same  party 


526  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

as  the  majority  in  parliament  gave  any  advice  to  the  king  he 
found  himself  practically  compelled  to  take  it.  He  could  not 
carry  out  plans  against  the  wishes  of  his  ministers,  and  he  could 
not  now  very  well  choose  new  ministers,  because  they  would  be 
of  the  opposition  party  and  would  not  be  able  to  get  along  with 
parliament.  The  ministers  were  coming  to  have  power  even  over 
the  king  through  being  the  representatives  of  the  majority  of 
parliament. 

473.  The  Cabinet.  — Still  another  advance  in  the  power  of  the 
ministers  was  being  unwillingly  conceded  during  the  same  time. 
Under  Charles  II,  as  has  been  seen,  it  had  become  usual  for  the 
king  to  dismiss  individual  ministers  who  became  obnoxious  to 
parliament.  Under  William  and  Mary,  as  just  described,  it  had 
become  usual  for  all  the  ministers  to  be  of  one  party  and  for  all 
to  resign  when  their  party  lost  its  majority  in  parliament.  It  now 
became  customary  for  a  certain  number  to  hold  together  and  to  be 
consulted  together  by  the  king.  The  first  conspicuous  instance  of 
this  was  the  group  known  as  the  "  Whig  Junto."  After  William 
had  decided  to  have  all  his  ministers  of  one  party  he  regularly 
consulted  the  four  who  held  the  highest  positions  and  in  whom  he 
had  the  greatest  confidence.  In  earlier  times  the  king  had  con- 
sulted the  ministers,  as  in  the  case  of  the  "  Cabal,"  separately,  not 
as  a  body ;  or  if  he  consulted  them  in  a  group,  it  was  the  larger 
body  known  as  the  "Privy  Council"  which  he  called  together. 
Now,  however,  it  was  a  small  group  of  influential  ministers  who 
met  frequently  for  purposes  of  conference  with  the  king  or  for 
consultation  among  themselves.  Although  this  practice  was  by 
no  means  invariably  followed  afterwards,  yet  it  was  never  long 
given  up.  It  grew  more  and  more  to  be  the  regularly  established 
custom  that  a  certain  number  of  the  king's  ministers  should  form 
a  sort  of  council,  and  that  they  should  act  together  after  once 
being  appointed,  and  resign  together  when  they  were  opposed  by 
parliament.  This  was  the  earliest  form  of  the  cabinet,  which  has 
now  become  such  an  important  part  of  the  English  government. 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       52; 

474.  The  National   Debt.  —  Notwithstanding  all  the  disorder 
and  civil  wars  of  the   seventeenth  century,  England  had  been 
growing  rich.     Commerce  had  brought   into  existence  a  class  of 
wealthy  men,  especially  in  London  and  the  other  large  cities,  who 
possessed  larger  amounts  of  capital  than  had  been  known  before. 
This  money  was  drawn  upon  by  the  government  not  only  by  taxa- 
tion but  also  by  borrowing.     Loans  were  authorized  by  parliament, 
and  those  who  lent  to  the  government  were  assured  of  receiving 
the  interest  on  their  loans  by  a  guarantee  of  the  income  from 
certain  taxes.     The  permanent  national  debt  of  England  began 
in   1692,  when  parliament  authorized  the  treasury  to  borrow  a 
million  pounds.    From  this  time  forward  the  government  has  paid 
the  interest  on  all  that  it  has  owed,  but  has  made  no  attempt  to 
repay  all  that  it  has  borrowed,  and  has  even  borrowed  more 
money  from  time  to  time  whenever  it  has  had  any  special  need. 
When  any  person  to  whom  the  government  owes  part  of  its  debt 
wishes  the  money,  he  simply  sells  his  claim  to  some  one  else  who 
has  money  to  loan  and  is  willing  to  take  over  the  bond  of  the 
government.     Thus  the  national  debt  has  become  a  permanent 
institution  and  has  always  been  a  popular  and  safe  form  of  invest- 
ment. 

475 .  The  Bank  of  England.  —  In  1 694  the  Bank  of  England  was 
founded.     Before  this  time  large  amounts  of  money  were  usually 
deposited  with  the  London  goldsmiths,  who  had  strong  vaults 
and  a  high  reputation  for  honesty.     But  a  safer  place  of  deposit 
and  one.  more  specially  suited  to  its  purpose  was  evidently  needed 
for  the  large  sums  now  being  used  in  business.     As  the  war  with 
France  dragged  on,  the  government  also  needed  to  borrow  more 
money  for  its  expenses.     A  plan  was  suggested  by  a  Scotchman 
named  William  Patterson,  who  was  a  member  of  parliament  and 
also  a  friend  of  the  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  by  which  these 
two  needs  were  fulfilled  and  certain  other  advantages  reached  at 
the  same  time.     Following  his  plan  a  number  of  wealthy  mer- 
chants formed  a  company  and  agreed  to  loan  the  government 


528 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


;£i, 200,000  at  8  £  per  cent  interest,  and  were  in  return  granted  a 
charter  allowing  them  to  establish,  under  certain  regulations,  a 
bank  to  receive  deposits,  loan  money,  and  carry  on  a  general 
banking  business.  This  constituted  the  Bank  of  England.  The 
bank  has  been  rechartered  by  parliament  time  and  time  again, 
and  the  rules  under  which  it  has  been  allowed  to  act  have  been 
repeatedly  changed.  It  has  been  the  financial  agent  of  the  Eng- 
lish government  in  all  its  larger  money  operations  and  its  stock 
has  been  one  of  the  most  common  forms  of  investment  in  Eng- 
land. It  was  later  allowed  to  issue  a  certain  amount  of  paper 


The  Bank  of  England 

money,  and  Bank  of  England  notes  are  the  familiar  form  of  paper 
currency.  Its  building  was  placed  in  the  heart  of  the  city  of 
London  and  has  been  enlarged  repeatedly  until  it  has  come  to 
be  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  objects  of  the  great  city.  It  is 
sometimes  called  the  "  Old  Lady  of  Threadneedle  Street,"  from 
the  name  of  one  of  the  streets  on  which  it  borders. 

476.  The  Act  of  Settlement. — After  the  death  of  Mary  the 
question  of  the  succession  to  the  crown  came  up.  William  and 
Mary  had  no  children  and  William  did  not  marry  again.  All 
the  children  of  Anne,  Mary's  sister,  had  died.  It  was  evident, 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       529 

therefore,  that,  although  Anne  would  succeed  William,  some 
further  arrangements  would  have  to  be  made  as  to  who  should 
succeed  her.  The  "Act  of  Settlement"  was  adopted  by  parlia- 
ment in  1701  to  settle  this  and  other  difficulties.  It  passed  over 
all  the  near  relatives  of  Mary  and  Anne,  because  they  had  become 
Catholics,  and  arranged  that  the  crown  on  the  death  of  Anne 
should  go  to  her  second  cousin  Sophia,  electress  of  Hanover, 
granddaughter  of  James  I,  who  was  the  nearest  relative  who  was 
a  Protestant.1 

While  the  succession  to  the  crown  was  being  arranged  by  this 
act  occasion  was  taken  to  include  in  it  a  number  of  provisions 
of  constitutional  importance.  These  were  on  points  which  had 
not  been  thought  of  when  the  Bill  of  Rights  was  drawn  up,  or 
which  were  suggested  by  recent  occurrences  or  by  the  anticipated 
coming  of  a  foreigner  to  the  throne.  In  future,  according  to  this 
act,  every  ruler  of  England  must  be  a  member  of  the  church  of 
England,  he  must  not  marry  a  Roman  Catholic,  nor  may  he 
declare  war  on  behalf  of  his  foreign  dominions.  According  to  its 
terms  judges  hold  their  offices  during  good  behavior  and  can  be 
removed  only  at  the  petition  of  both  houses  of  parliament.  No 
pardon  granted  by  the  king  can  stand  in  the  way  of  an  impeach- 
ment by  the  House  of  Commons.  Other  provisions  were  intended 
to  prevent  favoritism  to  foreigners,  to  restrict  the  influence  of 
government  officers  in  parliament,  to  lessen  the  authority  of  the 
cabinet,  and  to  strengthen  that  of  the  old  privy  council. 

477.  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  —  During  the  later  years 
of  William's  life  clouds  were  gathering  for  another  great  war  in 

1  James  I 


| 

Charles  I  Elizabeth,  married  the  elector 

of  the  Palatinate 


__ 

Charles  II  James  II  Sophia,  married  the 

elector  of  Hanover 

r  -i  I 

Mary         Anne        James  George  I 


530  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Europe.  The  king  of  Spain  was  weak-minded  and  had  no  chil- 
dren or  other  near  relatives.  There  was  great  probability  that 
a  part  or  the  whole  of  his  widely  scattered  dominions  in  Europe 
and  America  would  either  come  into  the  possession  of  Louis  XIV 
of  France  or  come  under  his  influence  by  being  bequeathed  to 
a  member  of  his  family.  This  would  enormously  increase  the 
already  great  French  power  in  Europe ;  and  it  was  therefore  to 
the  interest  of  other  nations  to  prevent  such  a  settlement.  The 
rulers  of  the  other  countries  of  Europe  also  hoped  themselves 
to  obtain  part  or  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  inheritance.  Two  suc- 
cessive treaties  between  England,  France,  and  .the  other  countries 
interested  were  formed  under  William's  influence,  known  as  the 
"partition  treaties,"  to  arrange  the  division  of  the  Spanish  domin- 
ions peacefully.  When  the  king  of  Spain  died,  however,  it  was 
found  that  he  had  left  Spain  and  the  great  bulk  of  his  dominions 
to  the  grandson  of  the  king  of  France.  Louis,  with  the  exulting 
exclamation  "  There  are  no  more  Pyrenees,"  threw  over  the  parti- 
tion treaty  and  prepared  to  fight  for  his  grandson's'  claims.  Other 
countries  declared  their  opposition  to  this  increase  of  the  power 
of  France,  and  the  long  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  broke  out. 
478.  The  Grand  Alliance. — This  war  began  in  1701,  but 
England  was  drawn  into  it  only  by  later  occurrences.  Lying 
between  France  and  the  Dutch  republic  was  a  group  of  provinces 
then  under  the  government  of  Spain  and  known  as  the  "  Spanish 
Netherlands."  A  number  of  towns  in  these  provinces  were 
heavily  fortified  and  occupied  by  garrisons  half  Spanish  and 
half  Dutch.  They  were  known  as  the  "  barrier  fortresses,"  being 
intended  to  protect  the  Spanish  Netherlands  in  the  first  place  and 
Holland  in  the  second  from  invasion  by  the  French.  On  the 
outbreak  of  the  war,  by  a  secret  agreement  between  the  French 
government  and  the  Spanish  parts  of  the  garrisons,  the  Dutch 
were  suddenly  driven  out  and  French  garrisons  introduced.  The 
barrier  towns  thus  became  a  point  of  attack  instead  of  a  defense 
to  William  and  constituted  an  immediate  danger  to  his  Dutch 


FOUNDATION   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       531 

dominions.  William  thereupon  entered  .the  struggle  against 
Louis  and  signed  a  treaty  known  as  the  "  Grand  Alliance," 
—  an  agreement  between  England,  Holland,  and  the  Austrians 
to  drive  Louis  out  of  the  barrier  fortresses  and  to  prevent  the 
union  of  France  and  Spain.  At  almost  the  same  time  Louis  per- 
formed an  act  of  hostility  to  the  English  people  as  marked  as 
that  against  the  Dutch.  James  II  since  his  deposition  had  lived 
as  an  honored  guest  of  the  king  of  France  in  the  palace  of 
St.  Germain,  not  far  from  Paris.  Louis  had  nevertheless  at  the 
Peace  of  Ryswick  recognized  William  as  king  of  England.  In 
1701  James  died  and  Louis  immediately  disregarded  the  treaty 
and  roused  the  anger  of  all  England  by  acknowledging  the  son  of 
James  as  king  of  England,  speaking  to  him  as  "  your  majesty," 
and  inviting  him  to  visit  him  in  state  as  if  he  were  a  brother 
monarch.  This  young  man,  whose  name  was  James  and  whom 
his  followers  called  "James  III,"  became  known  in  England  from 
this  time  forward  as  the  "  Pretender."  1  When  parliament  met 
the  Whigs  proved  to  be  in  a  majority,  and  intense  indignation 
was  expressed  that  the  king  of  France  had  recognized  as  king  one 
whose  claims  had  just  been  distinctly  rejected  by  the  English 
parliament  in  the  Act  of  Settlement.  On  the  strength  of  this  feel- 
ing, combined  with  the  former  causes  for  hostility  to  France, 
England  went  heartily  into  the  war.  The  army  was  raised  to 
forty  thousand  men,  the  navy  brought  into  good  condition,  and  a 
large  amount  of  money  appropriated  for  their  expenses. 

William  did  not  live  to  take  the  lead  of  these  troops  in  the 
field,  as  he  had  anticipated.  Early  in  the  year  1 702  he  was  injured 
by  a  fall  from  his  horse  and  soon  afterwards  died.  Anne  then 
became  queen. 

479.  Marlborough William  before  his  death  had  placed  tem- 
porarily at  the  head  of  the  united  English  and  Dutch  forces  a 

1  In  later  times  when  his  son,  Charles  Edward,  came  to  fight  for  his 
father's  claims  and  his  own  they  were  called  respectively  the  "  Old  Pre- 
tender "  and  the  "  Young  Pretender," 


532 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


man  who  was  destined  to  win  far  higher  military  glory  and  suc- 
cess than  his  own.  John  Churchill,  now  earl  and  afterwards  duke 
of  Marlborough,  was  one  of  the  courtiers  of  James  II  who  had 
been  taken  into  favor  by  William,  enriched  by  the  grant  of  estates, 
ennobled,  and  employed  in  many  duties  for  the  government.  He 
had  seen  much  military  service  and  shown  brilliant  abilities  when 
acting  as  an  officer  in  Ireland  and  in  the  Netherlands.  He  was 
not  a  man  of  high  character  and  he  had,  like  other  courtiers  and 
ministers  of  William,  at  one  time  made  secret  terms  with  James. 

When  this  was  discovered  he  had  been 
for  a  while  deprived  of  all  his  offices 
and  disgraced  at  court.  William  was 
not  a  man,  however,  to  let  good  abil- 
ity be  wasted  when  there  was  need  for 
it,  and  men  of  military  training  and 
gifts  were  none  too  numerous  at  that 
time.  Marlborough  was  therefore  re- 
stored to  favor  and  placed  in  command 
of  the  allied  English  and  Dutch  forces 
on  the  continent  immediately  under 
the  king. 

William's  death  left  him  for  the 
time  with  all  the  military  power  and 
responsibility  in  his  hands.  In  military  and  foreign  affairs  it 
was  Marlborough  rather  than  the  queen  who  was  the  real  succes- 
sor of  William.  This  resulted  partly  from  the  fact  that  he  had 
directly  and  by  means  of  his  wife  very  great  personal  influence 
over  the  new  queen.  Anne  was  a  good  woman  but  not  very 
bright,  nor  was  she  very  strong-willed.  Her  husband,  Prince 
George  of  Denmark,  although  he  lived  in  England,  was  a  for- 
eigner by  birth  and  interests  and  a  quite  insignificant  man  who 
furnished  her  no  guidance.  During  the  early  part  of  her  reign, 
therefore,  while  Anne  ruled  England,  it  was  Marlborough,  and 
still  more  Lady  Marlborough,  who  ruled  the  queen.  In  their 


Queen  Anne 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       533 

private  intercourse  and  correspondence  Lady  Marlborough  ad- 
dressed the  queen  as  "  Mrs.  Morley,"  while  Anne  addressed  her  as 
"  Mrs.  Freeman,"  and  no  deference  or  ceremony  was  practiced. 
In  fact  Lady  Marlborough  frequently  criticized  the  queen  so 
harshly  as  to  reduce  her  to  tears,  and  dictated  to  her  just  what 
she  should  do  and  say  under  certain  circumstances. 

480.  The  Great  Victories  of  the  War.  —  Marlborough,  who  had 
been  made  by  the  queen  captain  general  of  all  English  forces 
wherever  they  might  be,  now  proceeded  to  the  Netherlands 
and  in  conjunction  with  other  leaders  of  the  allies  worked  out 
plans  for  the  contest  against  the  French.  Year  after  year  cam- 
paigns under  various  leaders  were  fought  in  the  Netherlands,  in 
southern  Germany,  along  the  Rhine,  in  Italy,  in  Spain,  and  in 
Asia  and  America.  The  fleets  fought  in  the  Channel,  the  Bay  of 
Biscay,  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  West  Indies.  Many  sea  and 
land  battles  were  fought  and  both  successes  and  reverses  were 
numerous  ;  but  year  by  year  Marlborough  himself  gathered  a  har- 
vest of  brilliant  victories.  Four  great  battles,  fought  respectively 
in  the  years  1704,  1706,  1708,  and  1709,  have  become  famous. 
They  were  those  of  Blenheim,  Ramillies,  Oudenarde,  and  Mal- 
plaquet.  The  first  of  these  was  the  culmination  of  a  bold  and 
skillful  campaign  in  which  Marlborough  had  fought  his  way 
through  Germany  till  he  had  succeeded  in  uniting  his  troops  with 
those  of  his  Austrian  and  other  allies  near  the  little  village  of 
Blenheim  on  the  Danube  River  in  Bavaria.  The  French  and 
their  allies  had  gathered  there  to  meet  them,  hoping  in  case  of  a 
victory  to  press  on  and  capture  Vienna.  A  bloody  contest  was  " 
fought  between  the  two  armies,  each  numbering  more  than  fifty 
thousand  men.  It  resulted  in  a  brilliant  victory  for  Marlborough 
and  his  allies,  the  destruction  of  a  large  part  of  the  French  army, 
the  driving  of  the  French  permanently  out  of  Germany,  and  a 
break  in  the  tradition  of  their  almost  invariable  success.  Marl- 
borough,  who  had  already  been  created  a  duke  and  granted  a  life 
pension  of  ^5000  a  year,  was  now  congratulated  and  thanked  by 


534  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Anne  and  by  both  houses  of  parliament,  and  given  the  old  royal 
manor  of  Woodstock,  on  which  was  built  for  him  at  public 
expense  the  great  building  which  has  always  since  been  known  as 
Blenheim  palace. 

The  victories  of  Ramillies,  Oudenarde,  and  Malplaquet  were 
won  in  various  parts  of  the  Netherlands,  which  was  necessarily 
the  principal  theater  of  the  war,  as  it  was  the  border  land  between 
France  and  Holland.  The  war  went  generally  against  the  French, 
and  at  various  times  they  offered  favorable  terms  to  close  it. 
The  members  of  the  Grand  Alliance,  however,  were  anxious  to 
win  still  further  advantages,  and  Marlborough  was  not  as  wise  an 
adviser  in  statesmanship  as  he  was  a  brilliant  commander  in  war. 
It  was  continued  therefore  at  enormous  expense  and  for  doubtful 
advantages. 

481.  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713.  —  Even  when  peace  was  finally 
made  the  terms  were  neither  so  disadvantageous  to  France  nor 
so  honorable  to  England  as  might  have  been  secured  at  an  earlier 
time.  In  1711  the  English  ministers  opened  secret  negotiations 
with  the  French  king  apart  from  their  allies  and  agreed  on  its 
general  points  before  they  disclosed  the  matter  to  them.  Finally 
the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  was  signed  in  1713.  The  French  prince 
was  allowed  to  keep  the  throne  of  Spain,  where  he  had  already 
been  crowned  and  obtained  the  acceptance  of  most  of  his  new 
subjects.  France  on  the  whole,  however,  lost  territory  and  pres- 
tige, and  even  the  close  family  alliance  with  Spain  proved  to  be 
of  but  slight  advantage  to  her.  The  Italian  possessions  of  the 
Spanish  crown  were  handed  over  partly  to  the  Italian  duke  of 
Savoy,  partly  to  the  Austrian  emperor.  Austria  also  obtained  the 
old  Spanish  Netherlands.  Holland  gained  little  except  freedom 
from  the  constant  threat  of  being  invaded  and  conquered  by 
France. 

England  obtained  greater  advantages  from  the  treaty  than  any 
other  European  country.  Her  gains  were,  however,  not  of  Euro- 
pean territory,  but  almost  all  in  the  direction  of  that  extension  of 


FOUNDATION   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       535 

her  colonial  empire  and  distant  interests  which  was  the  most 
marked  tendency  of  English  growth  during  this  period.  On  the 
continent  of  Europe  she  retained  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  which 
had  been  captured  by  her  fleet  during  the  war.  In  America  she 
obtained  the  recognition  of  her  claims  to  Nova  Scotia,  Newfound- 
land, and  the  land  around  Hudson  Bay,  and  one  of  the  West 
Indian  Islands.  She  also  obtained  a  valuable  commercial  con- 
cession from  Spain  in  the  form  known  as  the  "  Assiento  Treaty." 

This  gave  her  not  only  permission  to  take  negro  slaves  from 
Africa  to  the  Spanish  West  Indies,  which  had  been  a  rather 
shameful  object  of  struggle  on  the  part  of  her  merchants  and 
sailors  from  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  but  also  an  actual  and 
legal  monopoly  of  the  slave  trade  with  the  Spanish  colonies  for 
thirty  years.  She  also  obtained  the  right  to  send  to  Panama 
annually  one  ship  of  six  hundred  tons  burden  loaded  with  goods 
to  sell  to  the  Spanish  colonists.  This  entering  wedge  for  trade 
with  the  Spanish  colonies  was  valued  and  put  to  its  fullest  use  by 
England  shortly  afterwards. 

Somewhat  similar  trading  advantages  in  another  direction  were 
obtained  -by  means  of  a  treaty  with  Portugal,  which  has  always 
been  known  as  the  "  Methuen  Treaty,"  from  the  name  of  the 
minister  who  arranged  it.  By  its  terms  England  agreed  to  admit 
port  and  other  Portuguese  wines  into  England  at  a  rate  of  duty 
one  third  lower  than  she  admitted  those  of  France,  while  Portugal 
in  return  gave  admission  to  English  manufactured  goods  on  very 
favorable  terms. 

482.  English  Naval  Supremacy.  —  England  emerged  from  the 
War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  with  the  strongest  fleet  in  the 
world.  The  naval  greatness  of  Spain  had  long  since  passed  away. 
She  was  too  poor,  too  badly  governed,  and  too  much  occupied 
with  contests  on  land  to  keep  up  a  great  navy.  Indeed,  after 
the  loss  of  the  Armada  her  fleet  had  never  been  brought  up  again 
to  any  considerable  efficiency.  The  navy  of  Holland  rose  into 
prominence  and  strength  when  the  long  contest  with  Spain  and 


536  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  necessities  of  her  colonial  dominions  led  her  to  make  her- 
self a  great  naval  power.  The  contests  with  England  during  the 
Commonwealth  and  early  Restoration  period  had  shown  her  fleet 
in  its  greatest  development.  But  the  long  and  expensive  con- 
tests that  the  Netherlands  had  to  wage  on  their  land  frontiers  to 
protect  themselves  against  Louis  XIV  had  prevented  them  from 
keeping  up  their  navy.  Then  in  turn  France,  as  part  of  her  great 
national  strength  under  that  monarch,  developed  a  great  navy 
which  was  able  to  defeat  or  at  least  to  cope  on  equal  terms  with 
that  of  England.  But  the  enormous  sums  which  had  to  be  spent 
in  her  widely  extended  land  wars  left  little  means  for  keeping  up 
a  navy.  England  alone  was  in  a  position  to  continue  the  build- 
ing up  of  her  naval  power ;  and  for  the  sake  of  her  colonies,  her 
growing  commerce,  and  the  protection  of  her  coasts  from  invasion 
she  felt  the  necessity  of  doing  so.  At  the  time  of  the  Treaty  of 
Utrecht,  therefore,  England  was  far  stronger  on  the  sea  than  any 
of  the  other  European  powers,  and  she  continued  to  hold  this 
supremacy,  ft  was  not  a  period  of  great  sea  fights,  and  no  victo- 
ries on  the  water  were  gained  to  correspond  to  Blenheim  and 
other  such  victories  on  land,  but  England's  predominant  sea 
power  was  recognized  by  her  rivals  and  carefully  kept  up  by  her 
own  statesmen. 

483.  Union  with  Scotland.  —  When  James  I  had  tried  to  induce 
the  English  and  Scotch  parliaments  to  unite  more  closely  and  to 
form  one  nation  with  the  same  laws,  church  organization,  and 
government,  as  well  as  the  same  king,  neither  the  Scotch  nor 
the  English  were  ready  for  any  such  union.  It  had  taken  them 
about  a  century  to  become  so.  Immediately  after  Anne  came 
to  the  throne,  in  1702,  commissioners  were  appointed  from  both 
countries  to  arrange  terms  for  a  closer  union.  There  was  much 
difficulty  in  overcoming  the  obstacles  in  the  way.  The  Scotch 
demanded  the  right  to  share  in  the  commerce  of  England.  Eng- 
lishmen, on  the  other  hand,  were  very  jealous  of  the  trade  which 
they  had  built  up  with  their  colonies  and  with  other  countries, 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       537 


and  they  were  reluctant  to  admit  any  one  else  to  share  it.  After 
long  disputes,  however,  this  and  other  questions  were  settled,  and 
in  1707  the  union  was  agreed  to  by  both  nations.  There  were 
no  longer  to  be  separate  English  and  Scotch  parliaments,  but  a 
joint  parliament  for  what  was  now  called  the  "  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain."  Forty-five  members  were  to  be  elected  to  the  House 
of  Commons  from  Scotch  counties  and  boroughs,  and  sixteen 
peers  were  to  be  elected  to  the  House  of  Lords  by  the  whole 
number  of  Scotch  nobles.  The  "union  jack"  was  at  the  same 
time  adopted  as  the  flag  of  the  United  Kingdom.  It  was  formed 
by  uniting  the  square  red  cross  of  England  with  the  Scots'  diagonal 
white  cross  of  St.  Andrew.1 
The  established  church  of 
Scotland  remained  presby- 
terian  while  that  of  Eng- 
land remained  episcopalian. 
Besides  the  church,  the 
common  and  statute  law, 
the  money  and  banking 
systems,  the  universities, 
and  many  other  of  the  older 
institutions  of  the  countries  remained  separate,  and  there  long 
remained,  and  indeed  still  remains,  much  difference  of  national 
feeling.  It  was  but  little  more  than  the  crown  and  the  legis- 
latures which  were  combined,  but  this  was  sufficient  to  make 
their  policy  in  all  foreign  and  in  many  internal  questions  the 
same. 

484.  Ireland  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  —  Scotland  was  united 
to  England  on  almost  equal  terms  and  received  from  the  larger 
country  the  consideration  due  to  a  willing  partner.  Ireland,  on 
the  other  hand,  so  far  as  the  native  Irish  were  concerned,  remained, 

1  The  -word,  jack  is  said  to  be  derived  from  Jacques,  the  French  form 
of  the  name  James,  James  I  having  first  planned  a  combined  flag  for  the 
two  nations. 


Union  Jack 


538  A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

as  she  had  always  been,  a  conquered  country,  held  down  unwill- 
ingly by  the  superior  power  .of  England.  A  great  many  of  her 
leading  men,  as  before  described,  had  emigrated  and  were  making 
successful  careers  for  themselves  in  the  military  or  civil  service 
of  France,  Spain,  and  other  Catholic  countries.  The  mass  of  the 
people  of  Ireland  was  therefore  a  poor  and  despised  peasantry 
with  a  mere  scattering  of  men  of  higher  position  and  abilities, 
especially  in  the  towns. 

Ireland  was  ruled  partly  in  the  interests  of  the  English  and 
Scotch  settlers,  partly  in  the  interests  of  England  herself.  The 
Irish  parliament  consisted  of  Protestants  only,  which  excluded 
probably  four  fifths  of  the  population,  since  almost  all  those  of 
native  blood  had  clung  to  their  early  Catholic  faith.  This  Prot- 
estant parliament  from  time  to  time  passed  harsh  laws,  usually 
described  as  the  "  penal  laws,"  intended  to  keep  down  the  Catho- 
lics. Some  of  these  measures  were  directed  against  property. 
The  land  belonging  to  a  Catholic  landowner  must  at  his  death 
be  divided  equally  among  his  children,  instead  of  all  descending 
to  the  eldest  son,  as  would  usually  occur  if  the  father  had  been 
a  Protestant.  If  any  one  of  the  sons,  however,  became  a  Prot- 
estant, he  received  all  the  land,  while  his  brothers,  if  Catholics, 
received  none.  If  Catholic  parents  with  any  property  died  leaving 
minor  children,  these  were  placed  by  law  under  the  control  of 
a  Protestant  guardian.  Other  laws  concerned  education.  No 
Catholic  could  enter  the  university,  or  be  a  schoolmaster,  or  send 
his  child  to  a  Catholic  school  at  home  or  abroad  to  be  educated. 
The  Irish  Roman  Catholics  must  either  remain  absolutely  igno- 
rant or  go  to  Protestant  schools.  A  third  group  of  penal  laws 
referred  to  religion.  The  church  of  England  had  been  made 
the  established  church  of  Ireland  also,  and  although  Presbyte- 
rianism  was  now  allowed  under  the  Toleration  Act,  Roman 
Catholic  worship  was  not  permitted.  In  1703  a  law  was  passed 
which  enabled  more  than  a  thousand  priests  to  perform  service 
in  their  parish  churches  on  being  registered  and  supervised  by  the 


FOUNDATION   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       539 

government.  But  they  were  required  to  take  such  oaths  as  made 
it  impossible  for  them  to  perform  many  of  their  religious  duties ; 
they  were  subject  to  heavy  fines  and  penalties  for  trying  to  con- 
vert Protestants  and  for  marrying  Protestants  to  Catholics. 

Finally  Catholics  were  excluded  from  the  right  to  hold  office 
or  to  serve  in  positions  of  honor  or  trust.  Many  other  laws  were 
passed  from  time  to  time  during  the  eighteenth  century,  either  by 
the  Irish  or  the  British  parliament,  laying  the  most  burdensome 
restrictions  upon  the  native  Irish  people. 

485.  Trade  Laws  against  Ireland.  —  This  long  oppression  of 
the  Catholic  Irish  was  imposed  upon  the  great  majority  of  the 
nation  by  a  small  minority,  —  the  English  and  Scotch  settlers. 
These  Protestant  settlers  were  enabled  to  keep  down  their  coun- 
trymen by  the  assistance  of  England;   but   they  in  their   turn 
had  to  recognize  their  inferior  position  when  English  trade  inter- 
ests were  endangered.     The  English  government  had  no  intention 
of  allowing  any  industries  to  grow  up  in  Ireland  in  the  hands  of 
either   Roman   Catholics  or  Protestants,   which  would   interfere 
with  the  interests  of  England.     The  English  parliament  therefore 
prohibited  the  importation  into  England  of  any  kind  of  cattle, 
meat,  butter,  or  cheese  from  Ireland.     A  law  was  passed  forbid- 
ding the  export  of  Irish  woolen  manufactures  to  any  country  but 
England,  and  burdening  even  these  with  heavy  duties,  thus  ruin- 
ing the  Irish  cloth  manufacture  for  the  greater  prosperity  of  that 
of  England.     In  many  other  ways  Irish  industry  was  restricted. 
This  led  to  much  discontent  even  among  the  English  and  Scotch 
Protestant  settlers  in  Ireland,  and  to  a  steady  emigration  of  many 
of  them  to  America,  where  they  made  up  a  considerable  part  of 
the  population  of  several  of  the  colonies  and  became  known  as 
the  "  Scotch-Irish." 

486.  Political  Parties  under  Queen  Anne.  —  Anne  was  by  nature 
and  training  a  high  Tory.     She  was  narrow-minded,  conservative 
in  all  her  feelings,  and  devoted  to  the  established  church.    When 
she  came  to  the  throne  the  Tories  had  a  majority  in  parliament. 


540 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


Marlborough,  not  being  closely  identified  with  either  party  and 
wanting  only  to  obtain  support  for  the  war  and  to  retain  his  influ- 
ence over  the  queen,  proclaimed  himself  also  a  Tory.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  therefore,  the  condition 
of  things  was  a  peculiar  one.  The  sovereign,  the  ministers,  and 
parliament  were  all  Tories,  and  yet  they  were  carrying  on  a  great 
foreign  war,  favoring  commerce,  and  allowing  Dissenters  to  increase 
their  numbers  and  influence,  all  of  which  were  Whig  and  not 
Tory  principles.  This  had  arisen  partly  from  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  William,  partly  from  the  peculiar  condition  of  the  times, 
which  made  the  national  interests  stronger 
than  party  prejudices. 

Such  a  condition  could  not  last  very  long. 
The  interest  of  the  nation  in  the  war  and  the 
personal  influence  of  Marlborough  gradually 
forced  the  Tories  out  of  orifice  and  their 
majority  was  lost  in  parliament.  By  1705  a 
clear  Whig  majority  had  come  into  existence, 
Arms  of  Queen  Anne  and  as  Qne  Whfg  minister  after  another  was 

appointed  to  take  the  place  of  the  Tories  who  resigned,  Marl- 
borough  declared  himself  a  Whig.  By  1708  the  queen  was 
forced  to  appoint  a  full  Whig  ministry,  much  as  she  disliked  that 
party  and  its  policy. 

The  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Anne  marks  the  period  at  which 
three  customs,  long  growing,  as  already  shown  for  two  of  them, 
became  a  settled  part  of  the  English  constitution.  First,  the 
sovereign  must  drop  his  or  her  own  personal  views  on  politics  and 
appoint  a  ministry  of  the  same  party  as  the  majority  in  parlia- 
ment. Secondly,  the  ministry  or  cabinet  must  all  be  of  the  same 
party,  and  must  act  as  a  unit  in  all  matters  of  general  policy. 
Thirdly,  the  sovereign  must  sign  a  bill  which  has  received  the 
approval  of  the  ministry  and  both  houses  of  parliament.  The  third 
of  these  customs  arises  from  the  other  two.  If  the  sovereign  refuses 
to  sign  a  bill  which  the  ministers  recommend,  they  will  resign  their 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       541 

office;  but  the  sovereign  cannot  appoint  a  ministry  from  the 
other  party,  because  they  would  be  in  a  minority  in  parliament. 
Therefore  there  would  be  no  ministry  and  government  could  not 
go  on.  In  1707  occurred  the  last  case  in  which  the  sovereign 
refused  to  sign  a  bill  passed  by  parliament.  Since  that  time  the 
veto  power  has  ceased  to  be  exercised  by  the  English  kings. 
When  a  bill  has  been  passed  by  parliament  the  sovereign  signs  it 
as  a  matter  of  course. 

The  power  of  the  Whigs  did  not  last  long.  The  nation  was 
becoming  weary  of  the  war,  the  queen  was  becoming  weary  of 
Lady  Marlborough,  the  ministry  and  the  majority  in  parliament 
acted  unwisely  in  impeaching  a  noisy  Tory  preacher  of  London 
named  Sacheverell.  A  wave  of  popular  excitement  spread  over 
the  country,  high  church  and  royalist  views  were  expressed  every- 
where, the  ministers  were  attacked,  and  in  the  next  parliament 
they  lost  their  majority.  The  Tories  were  again  in  power,  at  least 
so  far  as  having  the  ministry,  a  majority  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  the  sympathy  of  the  queen  extended.  The  House  of 
Lords  had  still  a  small  Whig  majority,  A  bold  stroke  was  now 
made.  There  was  just  one  way  in  which  a  majority  in  the  House 
of  Lords  could  be  changed.  The  sovereign  has  a  right  to  create 
new  noblemen  when  he  or  she  thinks  best.  The  ministers  now 
asked  Queen  Anne  to  exercise  this  power  by  raising  twelve  men, 
all  of  whom  were  known  to  be  Tories,  to  the  peerage.  They  thus 
became  members  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  changed  its  majority 
to  the  same  party  as  that  to  which  the  ministers  and  the  major- 
ity of  the  House  of  Commons  belonged.  From  this  occurrence 
it  became  evident  that  just  as  the  king  has  to  give  way  in  any  con- 
test with  parliament,  so  if  at  any  time  the  two  houses  are  strongly 
opposed  to  one  another,  the  House  of  Lords  may  be  forced  to  give 
way  to  the  House  of  Commons. 

Several  laws  were  now  enacted  to  keep  down  the  Whigs.  The 
"  Occasional  Conformity  Act  "  was  intended  to  prevent  the  practice 
by  which  a  Dissenter  conformed  to  the  church  of  England  test 


542  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

on  the  one  occasion  when  he  entered  upon  his  office,  but  at  all 
other  times  attended  his  own  church.  The  "  Property  Qualifica- 
tion Act "  prohibited  anyone  from  being  a  member  of  parliament 
who  did  not  have  an  income  drawn  from  land  amounting  to  at 
least  £200  a  year.  The  "Schism  Act"  made  it  necessary  for 
every  one  to  obtain  a  license  from  the  bishop  of  his  diocese 
before  he  could  open  a  school. 

Some  of  the  Tories  went  still  farther  in  their  opposition  to 
the  liberal  policy  in  force  since  the  revolution,  and  became 
out-and-out  Jacobites.  They  opened  up  communications  with 
the  son  of  James  II  and  offered  to  obtain  the  repeal  of  the  Act 
of  Settlement  of  1701  and  to  endeavor  to  make  him  king  on  the 
death  of  Anne,  if  he  would  become  a  Protestant.  He  refused 
to  barter  his  religion  for  a  throne,  and  the  Tory  leaders  knew 
very  well  that  not  even  their  own  party,  the  country  clergy 
and  gentry,  would  accept  a  Roman  Catholic  king.  While  these 
plans  were  in  progress  Anne  died  suddenly,  in  1714,  and  an 
entire  change  came  over  all  parties. 

487.  Accession  of  George  I.  — The  electress  Sophia  of  Hanover 
had  died  a  few  weeks  before  Anne.  Her  son  was  immediately 
proclaimed  king  of  England  as  George  I,  retaining  his  Hanove- 
rian dominions  also.  The  "  Four  Georges  "  followed  one  another 
in  succession,  their  reigns  continuing  through  the  whole  remain- 
der of  the  eighteenth  century  and  far  down  into  the  nineteenth. 

They  were  not  gifted  rulers  or  a  very  fine  type  of  men,  but  the 
time  had  gone  by  when  the  personality  of  the  king  was  of  much 
consequence.  The  regular  course  of  government  would  now  be 
pursued  and  the  desires  of  parliament  carried  out,  no  matter  who 
sat  upon  the  throne.  With  the  exception  of  one  short  period, 
ministers  looked  to  the  majority  in  parliament,  not  to  the  king, 
for  support.  In  other  respects  this  was  a  period  of  great  impor- 
tance for  England,  —  a  period  in  which  she  grew  from  an  insulai 
state  to  a  great  empire,  and  in  which  internal  changes  and  strug- 
gles of  the  greatest  interest  took  place. 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       543 

George  I,  believing  with  some  reason  that  all  Tories  were 
Jacobites,  gave  his  entire  confidence  to  the  Whigs  and  formed 
a  ministry  from  among  them.  There  had  been  much  popular 
dread  also  lest  the  Tory  leaders  during  Anne's  last  days  would 
bring  in  the  Pretender  as  a  Roman  Catholic  king.  The  next 
parliament  therefore  proved  to  have  a  Whig  majority.  After  the 
recent  party  changes  the  Whig  leaders  now  used  their  position 
and  influence  so  skillfully  and  the  classes  that  supported  them 
were  so  strong  that  that  party  became  established  in  power  for 
almost  fifty  years.  Instead  of  the  rapid  alternation  of  parties 
which  had  occurred  under  William  and  Anne,  there  was  a  long 
control  by  the  Whigs  unbroken  till  1760. 

488.  Jacobite  Rising  of  the  Earl  of  Mar.  —  An  effort  to  drive 
out  the  new  king  of  the  House  of  Hanover1  and  to  restore  the  old 
Stuart  line  followed  immediately  upon  the  accession  of  George  I. 
The  Pretender,  when  he  refused  the  offer  of  the  Tory  leaders 
made  just  before  Anne's  death,  had  hoped  that  on  her  deathbed 
she  would  recommend  him  as  her  successor,  and  that  Louis  XIV 
of  France  would  then  support  him  in  an  attempt  to  get  back  his 

1  The  Hanoverian  line  of  kings  was  as  follows : 
George  I,  king  1714-1727 


George  II 
king  1727-1760 

Frederick,  prince  of  Wales 
died  1751 

George  III 
king  1760-1820 


Sophia,  married  Frederick  William 
king  of  Prussia 

Frederick  the  Great 


George  IV 
king  1820-1830 
I 
Princess  Charlotte 
died  1817 

Frederick 
duke  of  York 
died  1827 

William  IV 
king  1830-1837 

Edward 
duke  of  Kent 
died  1820 

Victoria 
queen  1837-1901 

Edward  VII 
king  1901- 

Ernest 
Augustus 
duke  of 
Cumberland 
died  1851 

544 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


throne  without  giving  up  his  religion.  Anne  and  Louis  died  within 
a  year  of  one  another,  but  neither  of  them  gave  him  encourage- 
ment or  help.  Thereupon,  in  1715,  at  his  summons  some  of 
his  adherents  in  Scotland  rose  in  rebellion  under  the  earl  of  Mar, 
and  others  in  the  north  of  England  declared  for  him  at  the  same 
time ;  but  after  some  fighting  both  were  defeated  by  government 
troops  and  surrendered  or  were  scattered.  Although  the  Pretender 
landed  in  Scotland  he  showed  himself  incompetent  and  spiritless 
and  soon  returned  to  France.  Several  of  those  who  had  taken 
part  in  the  rising  or  in  plots  connected  with  it  were  executed  for 
treason,  but  the  greater  number  were  allowed  to  escape  or  were 
pardoned.  The  rising  of  1715  had  been  scarcely 
more  than  a  ripple  on  the  surface,  and  the  real 
interests  of  England  at  the  time  were  in  other 
directions. 

489.  The  South  Sea  Bubble.  — The  broaden- 
ing commercial  interests  of  the  nation,  the  foun- 
dation of  the  bank,  and  the  increasing  wealth  of 
Coat  of  Arms  un-  the  country  had  led  at  the  end  of  the  War  of  the 
der  Kings  of  the  Spanish  Succession  to  the  formation  of  mercan- 
tile companies  of  all  kinds  and  to  a  great  deal 
of  speculation  in  their  stock.  Lottery  after  lot- 
tery was  established  and 'numerous  wild  projects  were  entered 
upon  principally  for  the  purpose  of  dealing  in  the  stock  of  the 
companies  formed  to  develop  them.  One  organization  of  this 
kind,  the  South  Sea  Company,  was  founded  and  obtained  a  char- 
ter from  the  government  in  1711  for  the  purpose  of  trading  with 
the  Spanish  American  colonies  and  other  parts  of  America  and 
Asia.  It  was  favored  by  the  ministry,  given  especially  great  com- 
mercial privileges,  and  treated,  like  the  bank,  as  being  almost 
a  part  of  the  government.  Its  capital  was  increased  from  time  to 
time  and  its  privileges  extended.  Holders  of  the  national  debt 
were  encouraged  to  give  up  their  bonds  and  take  for  them  stock 
of  the  South  Sea  Company.  Finally,  in  1720,  the  directors  of  the 


House  of  Hano- 
ver, 1714-1807 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       545 

company  obtained  an  act  of  parliament  authorizing  them  on  pay- 
ment of  an  immense  sum  to  take  the  whole  national  debt  into 
their  management. 

Speculation  more  reckless  than  any  before  or  since  in  English 
history  now  began  in  this  stock.  Everybody  believed  that  the 
plans  must  be  all  right,  since  the  government  approved  of  them. 
The  directors  officially  promised  large  dividends,  though  there 
was  really  but  a  bare  possibility  that  they  could  pay  any  at  all. 
It  was  rumored  that  the  government  was  arranging  a  treaty  with 
Spain  by  which  that  country  was  to  receive  Gibraltar  and  Minorca 
and  give  England  in  return  gold  mines  in  Peru  which  were  to  be 
turned  over  to  the  South  Sea  Company.  All  classes  of  people 
were  carried  away  by  the  passion  for  speculation.  Country  gentle- 
men sold  the  estates  which  had  been  in  their  families  for  genera- 
tions to  buy  shares  of  the  South  Sea  Company  and  other  stocks. 
Clergymen,  dissenting  ministers,  courtiers,  noblemen,  literary  men, 
poor  widows,  —  all  put  their  savings,  their  earnings,  or  their  bor- 
rowings into  stock,  especially  that  of  the  favored  South  Sea  Com- 
pany. The  price  of  its  shares  rose  and  rose,  and  yet  there  were 
thousands  anxious  to  buy  them  at  any  price.  The  stock  finally 
sold  at  ten  times  its  par  value. 

This  went  on  for  some  weeks.  Then  the  excitement  began  to 
die  down.  People  began  to  doubt  whether  they  would  get  such 
large  returns  for  their  money  as  they  had  anticipated,  and  here 
and  there  began  to  sell  their  stock  at  less  than  they  had  paid  for 
it.  Then  the  bubble  burst;  men  came  to  their  senses  and  real- 
ized that  there  was  no  basis  for  all  this  nominal  value,  and  that 
no  commercial  company  could  carry  the  national  debt.  Immedi- 
ately there  was  a  panic.  Everybody  wanted  to  sell.  Lenders  of 
money  could  not  get  it  back  and  failed  in  all  directions.  The 
stock  fell  in  price  to  almost  nothing.  Thousands  lost  everything 
they  had  and  were  reduced  to  bankruptcy  and  ruin. 

490.  Political  Effects  of  the  Panic.  — Such  periods  of  reckless 
speculation  and  subsequent  loss  have  occurred  frequently  since. 


546  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

The  bursting  of  the  "  South  Sea  Bubble,"  as  it  has  always  been 
called,  was  conspicuous  because  it  was  one  of  the  earliest  and 
most  complete,  and  because  it  brought  into  power  a  minister  who 
was  destined  to  be  the  practical  ruler  of  England  for  the  next 
twenty  years.  This  minister  was  Robert  Walpole. 

When  the  panic  occurred  losers  naturally  looked  for  some  one 
to  hold  responsible.  There  was  much  bitterness  expressed  against 
the  directors  of  the  company,  and  one  nobleman  half  seriously 
proposed  that  they  should  be  sewed  up  in  bags  and  thrown  into 
the  Thames.  But  it  was  upon  the  government  that  most  blame 
was  thrown,  and  to  it  men  looked  for  relief.  The  ministers  had 
certainly  favored  the  company,  encouraged  and  taken  part  in  the 
speculation,  and  several  of  them  were  proved  to  have  helped 
swindle  the  public.  Those  guilty  of  fraud  were  arrested  and 
imprisoned,  and  even  of  those  who  were  not  accused  one  resigned, 
another  died  of  heart  disease  during  the  excitement,  and  still 
another  committed  suicide. 

491.  Ministry  of  Walpole. — Walpole  was  in  one  of  the  lower 
positions  of  the  ministry.  He  belonged  to  a  family  of  the 
lower  gentry  and  had  no  connection  with  the  noble  Whig  families 
which  were  so  influential.  He  had  been  in  parliament  for  many 
years  and  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  government  for  a  con- 
siderable time.  He  had  there  gained  a  high  reputation  for  finan- 
cial ability.  He  had,  however,  fallen  out  with  the  more  influential 
ministers  and  had  been  for  some  time  reduced  to  unimportance. 
He  had  opposed  them  in  their  policy  concerning  the  South  Sea 
Company  and  had  refused  to  take  any  part  in  the  speculation 
himself.  When  it  was  felt  that  somebody  was  needed  in  office 
who  could .  put  things  in  order  and  who  was  in  no  degree  respon- 
sible for  recent  occurrences,  Walpole  naturally  came  to  mind  as 
exactly  the  man  for  the  place.  He  had  been  called  "  the  best 
master  of  figures  of  any  man  of  his  time,"  and  he  was  therefore 
in  1721  appointed  by  the  king  first  lord  of  the  treasury  and 
chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 


FOUNDATION   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       547 


By  the  plan  which  he  brought  forward  the  estates  of  the  direc- 
tors of  the  South  Sea  Company  were  confiscated  and  turned  into 
its  treasury,  all  other  resources  were  realized,  the  government 
resigned  its  claims  against  it,  and  the  stockholders  as  a  result 
received  about  one  third  of  the  par  value  of  their  stock.  This 
did  not  reimburse  private  losers,  but  various  other  measures  were 
taken  to  give  them  some  relief.  Every  one  felt  that  Walpole  had 
brought  order  out  of  chaos  and  done  all  that  could  be  done  to 
put  matters  again  on  a  firm  footing  with  the  least  possible  loss. 

By  the  credit  of  this  achievement,  by  his  great  abilities,  by  his 
judicious  policy,  and  by  his  long  continuance  in  office  Walpole 
became  distinctly  the  most  influ- 
ential of  the  ministers.  With 
him  began  the  prime  minister- 
ship.  Although  there  was  even 
yet  no  office  with  that  title,  yet 
since  the  time  of  Walpole  there 
has  always  been  one  minister 
who  holds  the  most  conspicuous 
place,  gathers  the  others  around 
him,  confers  with  the  king  in 
their  name,  and  in  other  ways 
holds  them  together.  There  had 
been  royal  favorites  before  this 
time,  and  there  had  been  ministers  of  predominant  influence,  but 
none  who  for  any  length  of  time  was  acknowledged  by  his  asso- 
ciates, by  the  king,  and  by  parliament  to  have  this  leading  posi- 
tion. Walpole  now  attained  the  position  and  held  it  without 
serious  danger  of  its  loss  for  more  than  twenty  years.  This 
occurred  the  more  naturally  because  George  I  could  speak  no 
English  and  his  ministers  no  German.  All  their  intercourse,  there- 
fore, had  to  be  in  Latin,  which  was  spoken  badly  and  with 
difficulty  and  dissatisfaction  by  all  parties.  The  king  therefore 
soon  ceased  to  attend  cabinet  meetings  and  one  of  the  ministers 


548  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

presided  in  his  place.     This  was  naturally  the  most  influential 
minister  and  it  made  his  position  still  more  that  of  a  leader. 

492.  Policy  of  Walpole.  — Walpole  obtained  the  confidence  of 
two  successive  kings,  George  I  and  George  II,  and  parliament 
was  usually  easily  persuaded  to  follow  the  plans  he  advised.     The 
principal  characteristics  of  the  policy  of  the  great  Whig  minister 
were  the  effort  to  keep  peace  abroad  and  to  conciliate  party  dif- 
ferences at  home.      He  strove  to  allay  as  far  as  possible  the 
bitter  political  and  religious  conflicts  which  had  divided  men,  so 
that  the  new  line  of  kings  might  get  quietly  settled  and  the 
country  become  prosperous  and  contented.     He  was  always  mod- 
erate, reasonable,  and  cautious.     With  these  views  it  naturally 
followed  that  he  did  not  encourage  any  great  changes,  any  bril- 
liant policy,  or  any  conspicuous  actions  at  home  or  abroad.     His 
greatness  was  displayed  in  avoiding  unwise  actions  during  the 
quiet  routine  of  government  rather  than  in  taking  the  leadership 
in  stirring  events  during  a  period  of  action.    This,  indeed,  was  the 
general  character  of  the  eighteenth  century.    It  was  not  a  period 
marked  by  such  conflicts  on  great  matters  as  the  Reformation  in 
the  sixteenth  century  or  the  Great  Rebellion  in  the  seventeenth. 
But  England  during  this  time  was  growing  more  moderate,  reason- 
able, peaceful,  and  wealthy,  and  Walpole  was  the  ideal  leader  for 
such  a  time. 

493.  Parliamentary  Corruption.  —  The  higher  motives  of  mem- 
bers of  parliament  and  of  the  voters  who  elected  them  were  seldom 
appealed  to.     Most  matters  that  came  up  were  questions  of  inter- 
est, not  of  conscience.     In  carrying  through  parliament  the  meas- 
ures in  which  they  were  interested  the  ministers  did  not  find  it 
very  difficult,  therefore,  to  gain  men  over  by  bribery  or  other 
corrupt  means.     This  bad  custom  had  been  growing  ever  since 
the  reign  of  Charles  II,  but  it  reached  its  height  under  Walpole. 
"All  these  men  have  their  price,"  he  once  said  to  a  friend,  point- 
ing to  a  group  of  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.     The  use 
of  a  large  amount  of  secret-service  money  for  purposes  of  bribery 


FOUNDATION    OF    THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       549 

was  reduced  to  a  system  under  him.  Appointments  to  office 
under  the  government  were  used  for  political  purposes  as  a  regu- 
lar custom.  He  made  no  effort  to  draw  to  his  side  orators  or 
statesmen  or  the  rising  young  men  of  ability  and  character. 
Instead  he  simply  bought  or  bribed  by  office  enough  members  to 
carry  through  the  measures  in  which  he  was  interested.  Curiously 
enough,  although  Walpole  carried  on  the  government  by  a  set 
system  of  bribery  and  corruption,  he  was  himself  quite  free  from 
mercenary  motives  and  was  never  known  to  take  a  bribe. 

494.  The  Rising  of  the  Young  Pretender.  — The  justification  of 
the  policy  of  conciliation  and  of  devotion  to  material  pros- 
perity was  given  in  1745,  when  a  second  attempt  was  made  to 
restore  the  Stuart  line.  Thirty  years  after  the  rising  of  the 
earl  of  Mar,  Charles  Edward  Stuart,  son  oithe  "Old  Pretender" 
and  grandson  of  James  II,  tried  his  fortunes  in  an  attempt  to 
regain  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  He  came  to  Scotland  accom- 
panied by  only  seven  friends  and  appealed  to  the  chiefs  of  the 
Highland  clans  to  support  his  claims,  as  the  descendant  of  the 
old  Scotch  kings,  to  the  throne  of  that  country.  He  was  quite 
the  opposite  of  his  father,  being  young,  handsome,  brave,  and 
hopeful.  "Prince  Charlie,"  or  the  "Chevalier,"  as  he  was 
called  by  his  adherents,  —  the  "Young  Pretender,"  as  he  is 
called  in  more  serious  history,  —  found  for  the  time  his  principal 
strength  in  his  dignity  and  charm  of  manner,  in  the  Highland  cos- 
tume that  he  adopted,  and  in  his  confidence  in  his  own  success. 
His  persuasiveness  soon  brought  over  the  Highlanders,  who  were 
always  ready  for  a  raid  into  the  Lowlands.  He  then  marched 
straight  to  Edinburgh,  gathering  adherents  as  he  went  until  he 
had  several  thousand  followers.  Here  he  had  himself  proclaimed 
king  with  the  title  of  James  VIII  of  Scotland,  and  gave  a  grand  ball 
in  the  palace  of  Holyrood.  But  fighting  could  not  be  long  post- 
poned. The  regular  army  stationed  in  Scotland  was  under  a  spe- 
cially incompetent  commander,  Sir  John  Cope.  In  a  few  weeks 
a  battle  was  fought  at  Preston  Pans,  in  which  Charles  Edward 


550  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

was  completely  victorious,  and  for  the  next  few  months  had  Scot- 
land practically  under  his  control. 

But  Scotland  could  not  be  held  without  England.  Troops 
were  already  marching  north  against  him.  He  must  attack  or 
be  attacked,  and  he  was  encouraged  by  the  arrival  of  money 
and  arms  from  France.  Therefore,  although  many  of  the  High- 
landers had  returned  to  the  mountains  with  their  booty,  the  young 
prince  was  able  to  organize  an  army  of  six  thousand  men,  and 
with  this  he  crossed  the  border  into  England,  hoping  the  people 
would  rise  to  his  support.  But  there  was  no  sign  of  such  a 
reception.  The  Tories  who  had  preached  the  divine  right  of 
kings  did  not  put  their  principles  into  practice.  Jacobitism 
proved  to  be  a  very  weak  sentiment  in  the  face  of  the  practical 
dangers  of  a  rebellion.  A  few  recruits  were  found  in  the  towns 
of  Lancashire  and  a  few  of  the  clergy  expressed  their  good  will. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  no  spontaneous  action  of  the 
people  against  him.  It  was  not  a  period  of  enthusiam  for  any- 
thing, and  most  of  the  people  took  refuge  in  apathy,  leaving 
resistance  to  the  government.  The  government  soon  acted,  how- 
ever, and  by  the  time  the  prince  and  his  followers  had  reached 
Derby,  forces  were  gathered  around  them  which  made  any  farther 
advance  mere  recklessness.  The  militia  had  been  called  out  to 
bar  the  way  to  London,  and  two  armies  were  preparing  to  cut  the 
invaders  off  if  they  went  west  into  Wales  or  east  into  Yorkshire. 
Charles  Edward  was  anxious  to  make  a  dash  on  London,  but  his 
more  prudent  advisers  would  not  allow  it,  and  although  London, 
the  king,  and  the  ministers  were  badly  enough  frightened,  the 
Highland  army  soon  began  its  retreat  to  Scotland. 

They  beat  off  various  attacks  from  the  government  troops,  but 
finally  were  brought  to  a  decisive  battle  at  Culloden  Moor  in 
Scotland,  where  the  rebel  army  was  crushed  and  scattered.  The 
Young  Pretender  himself  wandered  for  five  months  through  the 
Highlands  before  there  was  an  opportunity  to  escape.  Though 
there  was  a  heavy  price  set  on  his  head,  not  a  Highlander  betrayed 


FOUNDATION    OF  THE  BRITISH   EMPIRE       551 

him,  and  finally  he  made  his  way  to  France.  His  later  life  was 
unworthy  of  his  promise.  He  became  dissipated  and  worthless. 
He  died  in  1788,  and  his  younger  brother,  the  last  descendant 
of  the  male  line  of  Stuart,  died  in  1808.  The  expedition  of  1745 
had  been  hopeless  and  without  excuse  from  the  beginning,  but 
the  gallantry  of  its  young  leader  at  its  opening  and  the  courage 
and  touching  fidelity  of  his  Scotch  followers  at  the  close  have 
thrown  over  it  a  gleam  of  romance  which  is  sorely  lacking  in 
other  quarters  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

495.  The  Rise  of  Methodism. — The  condition  of  religion  at 
this  time  was  much  the  same  as  that  of  politics.  Little  interest 
was  taken  in  those  controversies  on  theological  questions  which 
had  been  so  intense  during  the  time  of  the  Stuarts.  The  religious 
excitement  and  personal  devoutness  which  had  been  so  common 
among  the  Puritans  and  even  among  some  of  the  stricter  church- 
men had  almost  disappeared.  The  general  religious  character  of 
the  time  was  cold,  unspiritual,  and  formal.  The  clergy  both  of  the 
established  church  and  of  the  various  dissenting  sects  taught  good 
morals  and  preached  sermons  intended  to  prove  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  but  they  did  not  generally  feel  nor  did  they  encour- 
age in  others  any  very  active  or  devout  personal  religion.  Nor 
was  there  any  missionary  interest  or  active  effort  to  give  religious 
instruction  or  comfort  to  the  increasing  population  of  England  or 
to  the  lower  classes,  except  where  these  were  already  inhabitants 
of  the  rural  parishes. 

Here  and  there,  however,  there  were  persons  who  felt  attracted 
to  a  more  earnest  religious  life.  Of  this  character  was  a  small 
group  of  students  at  Oxford  in  the  years  between  1729  and  1735, 
who  were  accustomed  to  meet  for  purposes  of  mutual  improve- 
ment. They  were  of  course  members  of  the  established  church 
and  were  religious  and  ascetic  to  a  degree  then  very  unusual. 
They  fasted  during  Lent  and  on  every  Wednesday  and  Friday  of 
the  year ;  they  discussed  the  Bible  together ;  they  visited  the  sick 
and  prisoners,  and  abstained  from  most  of  the  common  forms  of 


552  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND 

amusement.  They  were  much  ridiculed  by  other  students  at 
the  university,  and  were  nicknamed  "  Methodists,"  from  their 
methodical,  strictly  regulated  manner  of  life. 

496.  John  Wesley.  — Among  these  students  were  several  men 
who  were  destined  to  carry  their  religious  fervor  into  the  broader 
world  and  to  create  a  religious  revolution  in  England.  The  most 
influential  of  them  were  two  brothers,  John  and  Charles  Wesley, 
and  George  Whitefield.  John  Wesley,  the  leading  spirit  of  the 
little  society,  was  born  in  1703,  at  Epworth,  in  Lincolnshire,  and 
was  the  son  of  the  rector  of  that  parish.  He  was  well  educated, 
became  a  fellow  of  Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  and  was  ordained 
to  the  ministry  in  1725.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  religious  nature, 
great  determination,  and  clear  intellect.  He  was  deeply  attached 
to  the  established  church  and  at  that  time  laid  great  stress  on 
its  forms  and  ceremonies.  In  1735  he  left  Oxford,  and  after 
varied  experiences  in  the  American  colonies,  in  Germany,  and 
in  his  own  country,  with  his  brother  Charles  and  his  friend 
Whitefield  from  the  year  1738  he  undertook  continuous  missionary 
work  throughout  England.  Although  clergymen  of  the  established 
church  they  had  no  special  parishes.  When  John  Wesley  was 
rebuked  for  having  no  regular  charge  he  said,  "The  world  is 
my  parish."  These  three  and  others  who  joined  in  their  work 
preached  from  the  pulpits  of  the  parish  clergy  wherever  they 
obtained  permission  to  do  so,  but  their  preaching  and  teaching 
were  of  a  very  different  kind  from  what  was  usual  at  the  time. 
Instead  of  calm  instruction  they  introduced  enthusiasm,  excite- 
ment, violent  warning,  and  appeal  into  their  sermons. 

They  also  organized,  among  the  men  and  women  of  the  con- 
gregations to  which  they  preached,  societies  similar  to  the  old 
Oxford  society,  formed  to  keep  up  religious  fervor  and  to  help 
one  another  in  their  religious  life.  From  the  general  similarity 
of  these  societies  in  plan  and  object  all  those  who  took  part  in 
them  were  called  "  Methodists,"  which  soon  became  a  well-known 
descriptive  term,  half  of  contempt,  half  of  approval. 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       553 


497.  Separate  Chapels  and  Field  Preaching.  —  Many  of  the 
clergy  refused  to  admit  the  Wesleys  or  Whitefield  into  their  pul- 
pits, objecting  to  this  irregular,  unusual,  and  disorderly  preach- 
ing, which  brought  hundreds  into  the  churches  who  had  never 
been  seen  in  them  before  and  broke  up  the  decorum  and  routine 
of  ordinary  church  life.  The  Methodists  thereupon  built  separate 
chapels  as  places  where  itinerant  preachers  might  speak  when 
they  were  refused  the  use  of  the  parish  church.  These  chapels 
soon  became  permanent  places  of  worship.  For  service  in  them 
men  who  were  not  regularly  educated  and  ordained,  but  who 
proved  to  be  well  suited  to  make  the 
emotional  appeals  of  Methodist  preach- 
ing, were  approved  by  Wesley  and 
other  leaders  as  lay  preachers. 

Still  other  customs  resulted  directly 
from  the  exclusion  of  the  Methodist 
preachers  from  the  established 
churches.  When  Whitefield  went  to 
Bristol  on  a  missionary  visit  he  could 
not  find  a  single  church  in  which  he  was 
allowed  to  preach.  He  heard  that  not 
far  from  that  city  there  were  many 
thousand  coal  miners  and  their  fami- 


John  and  Charles  Wesley 
(from  the  memorial  tab- 
let in  Westminster  Abbey) 


lies  who  had  practically  no  religious  teaching  whatever.  He  there- 
fore went  out  into  their  country  on  a  Sunday  afternoon,  and,  taking 
his  stand  on  the  side  of  a  hill,  began  preaching.  His  first  con- 
gregation consisted  of  about  two  hundred  men,  but  the  fame  of 
his  eloquence  spread  and  he  soon  preached  to  thousands.  Great 
throngs  of  the  poor  miners  and  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  neigh- 
boring city  came  out  to  hear  him.  Trees  were  crowded  with  lis- 
teners, the  lanes  were  thronged  with  wagons  and  carriages  of  the 
more  wealthy  who  shared  in  the  general  curiosity.  He  moved  the 
great  throng  with  wonderful  power.  Tears  made  white  streaks 
down  the  coal-blackened  faces  of  miners  who  had  probably  never 


554  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

heard  preaching  before.  Then  Whitefield  did  the  same  thing  in 
Moorfields  and  Kennington  Common,  on  the  outskirts  of  London. 

The  Wesleys  took  somewhat  reluctantly  to  field  preaching  and 
the  practice  soon  became  common  among  the  Methodists.  Thou- 
sands of  converts  were  made.  Whitefield  was  the  greatest  pop- 
ular preacher  England  ever  had.  John  Wesley  was  of  a  somewhat 
more  formal,  calm,  and  self-possessed  nature,  but  he  also  could 
hold  the  attention  of  crowds  of  ten  and  even  twenty  thousand 
people.  The  total  amount  of  his  preaching  was  almost  incredible. 
He  lived  to  be  eighty-seven  years  old  and  retained  his  vigor  to  the 
last.  He  spent  fifty  years  in  itinerant  preaching,  and  it  is  com- 
puted that  he  traveled  a  quarter  of  a  million  miles  and  preached 
more  than  forty  thousand  sermons.  He  always  rose  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning  and  frequently  preached  four  or  five  times  in 
one  day. 

498.  Separation  of  the  Methodists  from  the  Established  Church. 
—  Neither  Wesley  nor  his  companions  wished  to  leave  the  estab- 
lished church  of  England.  They  considered  themselves  clergymen 
of  that  body  and  believed  in  and  were  strongly  attached  to  its  creed 
and  form  of  worship.  But  there  were  many  things  which  tended 
to  bring  about  separation.  The  Methodists  were  organized  among 
themselves,  with  their  separate  chapels  and  often  their  separate 
ministers.  In  1744  the  first  Methodist  conference  was  held  at 
the  Founder's  Chapel  in  London.  It  was  attended  by  John  and 
Charles  Wesley,  four  other  ordained  clergymen,  and  four  lay 
preachers.  They  simply  drew  up  an  outline  of  their  teachings 
and  resolved  that  "  societies  are  to  be  formed  wherever  the 
preachers  go."  But  organization  was  not  likely  to  stop  there. 
John  Wesley  was  a  man  of  great  organizing  and  administrative 
ability  and  he  gradually  introduced  among  the  Methodist  societies 
rules  and  arrangements  which  enabled  them  to  carry  on  their 
church  affairs  quite  separately  from  those  of  the  parishes  of  which 
they  were  still  nominally  members.  In  1760  many  of  the  lay 
preachers  declared  themselves  "  dissenting  ministers"  and  began 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       555 

to  give  the  sacrament,  like  Presbyterians  and  Baptists.  Thus  the 
Methodists  became  a  separate  body  from  the  established  church 
and  practically  another  denomination  of  Dissenters.  They  had 
their  own  buildings,  preachers,  congregations,  arid  conferences. 
They  numbered  before  Wesley's  death  almost  a  hundred  thou- 
sand members  and  have  later  grown  to  many  millions  in  England, 
Wales,  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  other  countries. 

499.  The  Evangelical  Clergy The  Methodist  movement  not 

only  resulted  in  the  formation  of  another  religious  body  but  it 
also  had  a  great  effect  on  the  established  church.    Many  ministers 
and  laymen  were  led  by  the  religious  revival  and  by  the  preaching 
of  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys  to  adopt  a  more  active  and  intense 
religious  life  than  had  been  customary.     Much  the  same  appeal 
to  the  feelings  which  was  customary  among  the  Methodists  was 
now  frequently  made  by  clergymen   of  the  established  church. 
In  his  later  life  Wesley  was  asked  to  preach  from  many  pulpits 
from  which  half  a  century  before  he  had  been  turned  away. 

Some  Anglican  clergymen  even  became  itinerant  preachers, 
speaking  in  other  churches,  in  Methodist  chapels,  and  in  the 
open  air.  This  is  known  as  the  "  evangelical  movement"  in  the 
English  church,  and  had  a  marked  influence  far  into  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Even  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  Methodist 
and  evangelical  agitation  had  awakened  the  mass  of  the  people, 
given  them  new  interests,  taught  them  the  possibility  of  creating 
new  organizations  for  themselves,  and  done  much  to  break  up 
the  stolid  and  half-barbarous  ignorance  and  brutality  in  which 
many  of  the  lower  classes  lived.  In  the  colonies,  especially  in 
America,  the  Methodists  became  the  great  pioneer  religious  body, 
carrying  their  teaching  and  organization  close  to  the  frontier  as  it 
advanced  into  the  wilderness. 

500.  William  Pitt  and  the  Young  Patriot  Party.  —  There  were 
signs  of  a  change  in  the  political  feeling  of  the  country  some- 
what similar  to  the  religious  changes  that  have  just  been  de- 
scribed.   The  kind  of  government  that  was  being  carried  on  by 


556  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Walpole  satisfied,  it  is  true,  a  great  part  of  the  upper  classes. 
It  was  moderate  and  reasonable ;  but  it  was  extremely  corrupt, 
low-minded,  and  unpatriotic.  It  kept  a  safe  majority  in  parlia- 
ment, but  it  made  no  appeal  to  the  enthusiasm  or  support  of  the 
country  at  large. 

There  were  some  members  of  parliament,  however,  even  adher- 
ents of  the  dominant  Whig  party,  who  were  deeply  dissatis- 
fied with  it.  They  hated  the  bribery  which  was  so  common  and 
refused  to  vote  always  according  to  the  wishes  of  the  ministers. 
The  most  conspicuous  of  these  members  was  William  Pitt.  He 
was  a  young  man,  a  brilliant  speaker,  and  an  intense,  enthusiastic 
lover  of  his  country.  He  could  see  no  other  side  to  any  ques- 
tion than  the  one  which  was  to  the  interest  of  England.  He 
had  no  sympathy  with  Walpole's  moderation  and  coolness.  He 
believed  in  appealing  to  the  whole  people  and  in  stirring  them 
to  more  patriotic  national  feelings.  It  was  many  years  before 
he  occupied  any  office,  but  he  was  admired  and  beloved  by  the 
people  outside  of  parliament,  and  kept  up  a  constant  and  growing 
opposition  to  Walpole  and  to  his  form  of  government. 

501.  War  with  Spain.  —  Notwithstanding  the  slight  control 
which  the  people  had  over  the  government,  from  time  to  time 
some  wave  of  popular  feeling  spread  over  the  country,  and,  sup- 
ported by  the  patriot  party  in  parliament,  swept  the  government 
along  with  it.  In  1738  such  an  outburst  carried  England  into 
war  with  Spain.  There  were  many  commercial  disputes  with 
that  country.  English  merchants  were  active,  enterprising,  and 
unscrupulous,  and  pushed  their  ventures  into  all  parts  of  the 
world.  The  inhabitants  of  the  widespread  colonies  of  Spain 
wanted  to  buy  the  goods  which  English  merchants  wanted  to 
sell  them.  The  Spanish  government,  however,  like  all  other 
European  countries  at  that  time,  forbade  foreign  ships  to  trade 
with  their  colonies.  The  only  exception  to  this  was  the  Assiento 
Treaty,  by  which  England  might  send  one  vessel  of  six  hundred 
tons  once  a  year  into  the  Spanish  harbor  of  Panama.  This 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       557 

concession  was  made  an  opportunity  for  much  unfairness  by  Eng- 
lish merchants.  When  the  ship  which  was  permitted  to  enter  dis- 
charged her  cargo  at  Panama,  a  number  of  other  English  vessels 
which  had  followed  her  and  lay  far  enough  off  from  the  coast  to 
be  out  of  sight  sailed  in  at  night  and  loaded  her  again.  This 
cargo  was  then  discharged  the  next  day,  and  the  process  repeated 
several  times.  The  Spanish  government  knew  of  this  but  could 
not  afford  to  patrol  the  coast  and  prevent  it.  There  was  also 
much  smuggling  by  English  merchants  into  the  Spanish  pos- 
sessions. These  conditions  brought  about  frequent  disputes 
between  the  two  countries  and  repeated  conflicts  between  Eng- 
lish merchants  and  Spanish  revenue  officers. 

The  actual  occasion  for  the  war,  however,  was  the  story  of  an 
English  sea  captain  named  Jenkins,  who  came  to  London,  told 
how  he  had  been  maltreated  by  the  Spaniards,  and  showed  one 
of  his  ears  which  he  claimed  had  been  cut  off  by  them  seven 
years  before,  and  which  he  had  kept  in  a  box.  He  declared 
when  examined  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  the  Spanish 
officer  had  told  him  to  take  his  ear  and  show  it  to  his  king. 
When  he  was  asked  what  he  did  then  he  replied,  "  I  recom- 
mended my  soul  to  my  God  and  my  cause  to  my  country."  This 
expression  was  seized  upon,  became  a  popular  cry,  and  the  minis- 
try, urged  by  the  warlike  feeling  in  the  country  and  the  rising 
spirit  in  parliament,  decided  to  go  to  war.  When  Walpole  entered 
upon  this  war  with  Spain  in  1739  ne  did  so  against  his  better 
judgment  and  in  the  anticipation  of  defeat.  His  fears  were  justi- 
fied. There  was  no  fighting  on  land,  and  at  sea  there  were  more 
failures  than  successes.  It  is  true  that  an  English  fleet  which 
was  sent  on  a  half-warlike,  half-exploring  voyage  around  the 
world  plundered  a  Spanish  port  on  the  coast  of  Peru,  captured  a 
Spanish  galleon  on  the  way  to  Manila,  seized  some  Spanish  colo- 
nies and  ships  in  the  Indies,  and  returned  to  Portsmouth,  like 
Drake,  with  holds  full  of  gold  and  silver.  But  its  return  was  only 
after  four  years,  in  which  nothing  had  been  heard  of  it,  and  in  the 


558  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

meantime  the  war  elsewhere  had  gone  badly.  A  fleet  captured 
Porto  Bello  on  the  isthmus  of  Panama,  but  was  driven  off  from 
Carthagena  and  Santiago  with  heavy  losses  and  some  discredit. 

502.  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession.  —  This  would  have  been 
a  quite  unimportant  war  except  for  two  things.  In  the  first  place, 
its  ill  success  led  to  the  resignation  of  Walpole  in  1742,  and 
secondly  it  dragged  on  until  it  became  a  part  of  the  great  War 
of  the  Austrian  Succession  which  was  carried  on  among  the 
European  countries  from  1740  to  I748.1  Even  in  this  war  the 
part  which  England  took  was  comparatively  small.  George  II 
was  deeply  interested  in  it  on  account  of  his  possession  of  Han- 
over in  Germany,  and  the  feeling  in  the  country  was  warlike, 
especially  as  the  position  of  England  was  opposed  to  that  of 
both  Spain  and  France,  her  two  ancient  enemies.  England 
was  more  wealthy  than  her  allies.  In  addition  therefore  to  the 
troops  she  sent,  grants  of  money  were  made  by  parliament  to 
various  countries  on  the  continent  to  enable  them  to  put  armies 
into  the  field.  In  1743  a  combined  army  of  English,  Hanove- 
rians, Hessians,  Austrians,  and  Dutch  was  formed  under  the  com- 
mand of  King  George  II,  and  put  in  motion  for  an  invasion  of 
France.  A  victory  of  some  importance  over  the  French  was 
gained  by  it  at  Dettingen.  This  was  the  last  occasion  when  an 
English  king  actually  took  part  in  a  battle. 

1  This  was  a  war  in  which  the  principal  contestants  were  Maria  Theresa 
of  Austria  and  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  but  which  drew  into  it  as 
allies  on  one  side  or  the  other  most  of  the  nations  of  Europe.  Charles  VI 
of  Austria,  having  no  sons,  had  drawn  up  a  document  known  as  the  "  Prag- 
matic Sanction,"  guaranteeing  to  his  daughter  Maria  Theresa  the  inherit- 
ance of  all  his  dominions.  Most  of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  agreed  to 
this,  but  when  Charles  died  Frederick  of  Prussia  seized  part  of  the  inherit- 
ance of  the  young  queen  and  others  other  parts.  For  the  protection  of 
her  dominions  Maria  Theresa  organized  an  extensive  alliance  of  different 
countries,  of  which  England  was  one.  On  the  other  hand,  Frederick  called 
in  the  aid  of  the  French,  so  that  the  various  countries  were  soon  pitted 
against  one  another. 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       559 

Two  years  later  occurred  the  battle  of  Fontenoy  in  the  Nether- 
lands, where  the  English  and  their  allies  were  defeated.  A  column 
of  English  and  Hanoverian  troops  had  forced  themselves  through 
the  French  lines  and  were  on  the  brink  of  obtaining  a  complete 
victory  when  the  French  general  made  a  last  and  desperate  effort 
to  save  the  day.  He  ordered  the  household  troops  of  the  French 
king  and  an  Irish  brigade  to  attack  the  British  column.  The 
Irish  brigade  was  composed  of  several  regiments  of  Irish  Catholics 
driven  out  of  their  own  country  by  the  persecutions  of  the  penal 
code  and  now  in  the  service  of  France.  They  were  burning  with 
desire  to  avenge  themselves  on  their  English  persecutors  and 
now  attacked  them  in  a  charge  that  carried  all  before  it,  threw 
the  British  and  their  allies  into  confusion,  and  won  a  decisive 
victory  for  the  French. 

Some  fighting  took  place  at  sea,  although  there  were  no  great 
engagements.  England  defeated  two  French  fleets,  conquered 
Cape  Breton  in  America,  and  captured  an  immense  number  of 
French  merchant  vessels.  Fighting  between  the  English  and 
French  also  took  place  in  India.  A  general  peace  was  made  in 
1748  at  Aix  la  Chapelle  by  which  the  countries  involved  agreed 
to  restore  everything,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  condition  it  was  in 
at  the  beginning  of  the  conflict.  The  War  of  the  Austrian  Suc- 
cession was  one  of  the  most  useless  and  at  the  same  time  one 
of  the  most  destructive  wars  in  history. 

503.  The  Colonization  of  Nova  Scotia.  —  When  the  war  was 
over  great  difficulty  was  found  in  England  in  disposing  in  a  satis- 
factory way  of  the  large  numbers  of  soldiers  and  sailors  who  were 
discharged  from  the  service.  The  suggestion  was  made  that  they 
be  encouraged  to  go  as  settlers  to  the  English  colony  of  Nova 
Scotia,  which  was  flanked  on  both  sides,  and  because  of  its  small 
population  endangered,  by  the  French  colony  of  Canada.  This 
plan  was  taken  up  with  great  interest  by  Lord  Halifax,  president 
of  the  Board  of  Trade.  Free  passage,  a  piece  of  land,  and  support 
for  a  year  were  offered  to  each  private,  and  larger  grants  were 


560  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

made  to  officers.  Some  four  thousand  men  accepted  the  offer  of 
the  government,  the  expedition  sailed  in  1750  under  military  pro- 
tection, and  Nova  Scotia  soon  became  a  populous  and  flourishing 
colony.  Its  principal  town  was  named  Halifax,  after  the  patron 
of  the  enterprise.  This  was  the  first  colonizing  expedition  sent 
out  under  the  direct  auspices  of  the  English  government. 

504.  Reform  of  the  Calendar.  —  In  1751  the  English  calendar 
was  corrected  and  made  to  conform  to  that  in  use  in  continental 
countries.     The  Julian  calendar,  established  in  the  time  of  Julius 
Caesar  and  in  use  throughout  the  middle  ages,  was  imperfect,  and 
in  the  course  of  time  had  brought  an  error  of  several  days  into 
the  common  reckoning.     This    error    was    corrected  by  certain 
Italian   astronomers   and   the    correction   promulgated    by  Pope 
Gregory  XIII  in   1582.     Most  countries  accepted  this  reform, 
but  England  obstinately  declined  to  do  so  because  the  recom- 
mendation came  from  the  pope,  and  still  used  the  dates  which 
are  now  described  as  "  Old  Style."     In  the  eighteenth  century 
the  error  amounted  to  eleven  days.     Parliament  now  passed  an 
act  ordering  that  September  3  should  be  called  September  14, 
and  that  the  year  should  be  calculated  in  the  future  according  to 
the  Gregorian  calendar.     The   beginning  of   the  year   was  also 
placed  at  January    i    instead    of    March   25,  as  was  customary 
before.     Many  of  the  people  did  not  understand  the  change  and 
believed  that  in  some  way  they  were  being  defrauded  of  their 
time  or  pay.     Mobs  went    about    shouting   "  Give  us  back  our 
eleven  days." 

505.  English  and  French  in  America.  —  The  last  war  had  showed 
that  England's  interests  were    now  so    widely    spread    over  the 
world  that  any  war  into  which  she  entered  was  likely  to  involve 
fighting  in  India  and  America  as  well  as  in  Europe.     Her  colonies 
were  also  likely  of  themselves  to  lead  her  into  conflicts.     It  was 
in  this  way  that  she  was  drawn  into  her  next  great  war.     In  America 
French  colonists  occupied  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River 
and  the  district  of  Louisiana  around  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 


«te  w^  rw^v  ^"^^r  *^r\®>a  K&*? 


5«> 


«£•>&>*>••- 
ylfo^Tvo^-^ 


ENGLAND 
FRANCE  AM>  SPAIN 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE    BRITISH    EMPIRE       561 

They  claimed  all  the  country  lying  between  these  distant  settle- 
ments, which  would  have  given  them  the  whole  western  slope  of 
the  Allegheny  Mountains,  and  had  even  established  a  few  forts 
and  trading  posts  there. 

The  thirteen  English  colonies  along  the  seacoast,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  been  developing  their  country,  spreading  inland 
and  across  the  mountains,  and  were  not  at  all  inclined  to  accept 
the  French  claims.  In  1749  the  English  government  granted 
a  charter  to  the  "  Ohio  Company  "  which  had  as  its  objects  trade 
with  the  Indians  in  this  disputed  region  and  the  founding  of  settle- 
ments on  the  Ohio  River.  On  the  other  hand,  in  1 753,  Duquesne, 
the  governor  of  Canada,  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  all  terri- 
tory west  of  the  mountains  to  be  in  the  possession  of  France.  At 
the  same  time  he  sent  messages  to  the  governors  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York  announcing  that  France  would  permit  no  settle- 
ments on  the  Ohio  River.  A  French  fort  was  built  where  the 
Monongahela  flows  into  the  Ohio  and  named  after  the  governor, 
Fort  Duquesne. 

The  English  protested  against  this  and  fighting  soon  occurred. 
The  home  government  gave  orders  to  the  governors  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  Virginia  to  resist  the  French  if  they  entered  the  limits 
of  their  provinces.  The  colonies  raised  troops  and  an  expedition 
was  sent  from  Virginia  to  the  Ohio  country  in  1754  under  a  young 
planter  named  George  Washington.  He  was  successful  in  one  skir- 
mish with  the  French  but  was  soon  attacked  by  a  much  superior 
force  and  compelled  to  surrender.  Then  General  Braddock  was 
sent  from  England  with  about  two  thousand  regular  troops  to  help 
the  colonial  militia.  He  was  too  proud  to  take  the  advice  of  colo- 
nial officers  and  was  ambushed  by  a  body  of  French  and  Indians 
near  Fort  Duquesne.  He  was  killed  with  many  of  his  officers, 
while  his  whole  force  was  scattered.  When  the  French  brought 
new  troops  from  home  an  English  fleet  intercepted  and  attacked 
some  of  the  vessels  carrying  them.  In  India  a  conflict  had  broken 
out  between  the  French  and  English  East  India  Companies. 


562  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

506.  The  Seven  Years'  War. — With  actual  fighting  in  prog- 
ress between  Frenchmen  and  Englishmen  in  India  and  America, 
war  between  the  two  nations  could  not  long  be  avoided.     It  was 
the  more  likely  to  occur  and  would  more  probably  be  a  serious 
contest  because  another  European  war  .was  threatening  to  break 
out,  in  which  England  and  France  would  as  usual  be  drawn  to 
opposite  sides.     In  1756  the  Seven  Years'  War  began.     England 
immediately  declared  war  on  France. 

For  a  while  everything  went  badly.  Minorca,  one  of  the  two 
English  possessions  in  the  Mediterranean,  was  captured  by  the 
French  fleet,  the  king's  electorate  of  Hanover  was  overrun  by  a 
French  army,  an  attempt  by  the  English  commander  in  America 
to  capture  the  French  fortress  of  Louisburg  was  a  failure.  Worse 
than  these  military  disasters  was  the  weakness  and  incompetency 
of  the  ministry.  A  succession  of  prime  ministers  had  held  office 
since  the  resignation  of  Walpole.  Lord  Carteret  had  been  suc- 
ceeded by  Henry  Pelham,  and  he  by  his  brother,  the  duke  of 
Newcastle.  Newcastle  was  fussy,  easily  frightened,  and  incapable 
of  planning  or  carrying  out  a  vigorous  policy.  Under  his  adminis- 
tration, without  a  good  organization  of  either  army,  navy,  or  diplo- 
matic service,  it  seemed  certain  that  England  would  suffer  calamity 
after  calamity  in  a  war  with  France. 

507.  The  Ministry  of  Pitt. — Pitt  was  added  to  the  ministry 
but  at  first  given  almost  no  power.     After  two  years  of  alarm, 
mismanagement,  and  failure  he  was  at  last  brought  into  his  true 
position  as  the  most  influential  minister  in  the  cabinet,  and  to 
him  fell  the  principal  direction  of  the  war.     Pitt  had  been  in  par- 
liament for  more  than  twenty  years,  and  his  splendid  powers  of 
oratory,  his  fiery  nature,  and  his  great  popularity  in  the  country 
at  large  had  made  him  dreaded  by  opponents  and  valued  by  the 
most  thoughtful  of  his  colleagues.     But  the  dislike  of  the  king, 
the  secure  position  of  the  great  leaders  of  the  Whig  party,  and 
his  own  stiffness  and  irritability  had  prevented  him  from  holding 
any  important  office   or   exercising  any  great   influence   in   the 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE       563 


government.  Now,  however,  events  had  at  last  brought  him  to 
the  front,  and  for  some  years  Pitt  was  almost  the  despotic  ruler 
of  England  in  all  things  connected  with  the  war. 

He  immediately  infused  some  of  his  own  energy,  patriotism, 
devotion,  and  confidence  into  all  branches  of  the  government, 
army,  and  navy.  He  sent  home  again  the  Dutch  and  German 
troops  which  had  been  brought  over  by  the  king  and  Newcastle 
to  defend  England,  leaving  the  English  people  to  defend  them- 
selves, as  they  had  always  been  able  to  do  before.  He  ordered 
regiments  to  be  recruited  in  the  Highlands,  much  to  the  alarm 
of  those  who  remembered  1745  and  be- 
lieved all  Highlanders  to  be  confirmed 
Jacobites.  But  Pitt  argued  that  if  the 
Scotchmen  were  given  an  opportunity 
for  warlike  glory  and  regular  pay,  they 
would  faithfully  support  the  govern- 
ment; and  they  did.  He  sent  new 
troops  to  the  continent  to  join  the  allies 
of  England  there,  obtained  from  parlia- 
ment liberal  subsidies  to  help  Prussia 
keep  her  armies  in  the  field,  and  dis- 
patched one  naval  expedition  after 
another  to  the  coast  of  France.  The  old 

capacity  of  the  English  for  naval  warfare  asserted  itself.  Between 
1758  and  1762  about  nine  tenths  of  all  the  ships  of  war  belong- 
ing to  the  French  government  were  captured  or  destroyed,  and 
the  English  naval  vessels  and  privateers  also  seized  most  of  the 
French  West  Indies  and  almost  swept  French  commerce  from  the 
seas.  But  the  greatest  battles  of  this  war  were  fought,  where  it 
had  originated,  in  North  America  and  in  India.  In  both  these 
countries  English  and  French,  pitted  against  one  another  in 
a  long  struggle,  fought  desperately,  and  in  both  the  English 
emerged  completely  and  permanently  victorious  over  their  an- 
cient rivals. 


William  Pitt 


564  A    SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

508.  The  French  and  Indian  War  in  America.  —  In  America  the 
settlers  in  the  English  colonies  were  much  more  numerous  than 
those  in  the  French  settlements ;  but  they  were  unwarlike,  divided 
into  separate  provinces,  and  their  military  affairs  much  misman- 
aged by  the  home  government.  The  French,  with  a  small  popu- 
lation in  America,  had  been  provided  by  their  government  with 
a  relatively  large  and  effective  military  equipment  and  had  been 
placed  under  a  succession  of  capable  governors  whose  powers 
were  almost  absolute.  The  French  were  also  more  successful  in 
obtaining  the  good  will  and  the  alliance  of  the  Indians.  In  the 
early  part  of  the  war,  therefore,  under  Montcalm,  fighting  had 
gone  mostly  in  favor  of  the  French,  and  it  seemed  not  unlikely 
that  they  would  make  good  their  hold  upon  the  vast  western 
territories  which  they  claimed. 

But  all  this  was  now  changed.  Pitt  urged  the  English  colonists 
to  raise  twenty  thousand  troops,  promising  to  provide  them  with 
arms,  ammunition,  and  provisions,  and  to  obtain  a  grant  from 
parliament  to  repay  the  expense  of  their  uniforms  and  wages.  He 
sent  more  than  twenty  thousand  regular  troops  from  England  and 
placed  them  under  new  commanders  like  Wolfe,  Howe,  and 
Amherst,  chosen  not  for  their  position  or  influence  but  for  their 
ability,  enterprise,  and  ambition. 

The  troops  and  supplies  that  were  sent  from  France  were  cut 
off  by  the  English  fleets,  and  the  French  had  thereafter  to  keep 
up  the  contest  with  no  resources  except  such  troops  and  equip- 
ment as  they  already  had  in  Canada.  The  English  suffered 
several  defeats  but  gained  many  more  victories.  In  1758  Louis- 
burg  and  all  Cape  Breton  were  taken.  Fort  Duquesne  was  cap- 
tured and  destroyed  and  the  settlement  renamed  Pittsburg,  after 
the  great  minister.  In  1759  Ticonderoga,  after  a  failure  during 
the  previous  year,  was  taken,  as  were  also  several  other  forts.  The 
crowning  achievement  was  the  capture  of  the  city  of  Quebec  in 
a  bloody  struggle  in  which  Wolfe  and  Montcalm  were  both  killed. 
In  1760  Montreal  was  captured  and  Canada  was  thus  lost  to 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE       565 

France.  It  was  never  regained  and  passed  permanently  into 
the  possession  of  England.  Shortly  afterwards  France  ceded  the 
country  around  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  to  Spain  and  thus 
lost  her  foothold  in  America. 

509.  India In  India  the  contest  was  fought  out  with  less  help 

from  the  mother  country.  In  fact  the  righting  between  English 
and  French  in  India  had  long  been  a  rivalry  between  traders  and 
adventurers  from  those  two  countries  rather  than  between  the  gov- 
ernments. The  wars  at  home  merely  gave  an  excuse  for  the  rival- 
ries of  the  two  companies  in  India  to  be  settled  with  the  sword. 
Unlike  America,  where  the  natives  were  few,  poor,  and  barbarous, 
in  India  there  were  many  millions  of  inhabitants  who  had  been 
thickly  settled  in  the  land  for  ages  and  had  an  old  civilization  and 
much  wealth.  They  had  therefore  many  political  and  religious 
complications  among  themselves  quite  apart  from  those  of  the 
European  traders  and  settlers  who  came  to  live  among  them. 

At  about  the  time  that  Elizabeth  was  reigning  in  England  a 
Mogul  or  Tartar  emperor  named  Akbar  was  making  a  long  series 
of  conquests  of  various  native  kingdoms  and  principalities,  which 
resulted  in  uniting  the  greater  part  of  India  under  his  control. 
He  and  his  armies  were  Mohammedans  but  they  allowed  freedom 
of  worship  to  the  vast  Hindoo  and  Parsee  population  which  they 
conquered.  The  capital  of  Akbar  was  finally  established  at  Delhi 
in  the  north  of  India.  He  divided  his  empire  into  provinces,  over 
each  of  which  was  a  viceroy,  and  instituted  great  improvements, 
in  government,  the  action  of  the  law  courts,  the  keeping  of  order, 
the  survey  of  land,  and  the  regulation  of  taxation. 

The  power  of  the  viceroys  in  such  a  large  country  was  very 
great,  and  frequently  they  and  even  their  subordinate  governors 
acted  almost  independently.  The  conquests  of  the  ruler  of  Delhi 
and  those  of  his  successors  were  never  complete  in  the  Deccan,1 

1  The  Deccan  is  the  southern  portion  of  the  peninsula  of  India.  The 
name  is  applied  to  a  district  about  nine  hundred  miles  long  and  three  or  four 
hundred  miles  wide. 


566  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

where  several  older  Mohammedan  and  one  native  Hindoo  kingdom 
remained  either  entirely  or  practically  independent.  Somewhat 
later  also  a  number  of  the  native  Hindoo  races  in  the  western 
mountainous  provinces  became  independent  and  formed  what  was 
called  the  "  Mahratta  Confederacy"  under  independent  rajahs.1 

510.  European  Settlements  in  India.  —  In  this  tangle  of  native 
races  and  governments  Portuguese,  Dutch,  French,  and  English 
traders  had  come  and  made  settlements  for  trading  purposes, 
relying  on  permission  received  and  protection  given  by  the  Great 
Mogul  or  by  one  or  other  of  the  local  rulers.  By  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Portuguese  and  Dutch  settlements 
on  the  mainland  of  India  had  become  comparatively  unimportant. 
The  French,  however,  were  installed  in  two  or  three  important 
centers,  and  the  English  had  three  well-established  posts,  Bombay 
on  the  west  coast,  Madras  on  the  southeast  coast,  and  Calcutta  on 
the  northeast,  at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Ganges  River.  About  twelve  hundred  miles  of  coast  inter- 
vened between  Bombay  and  Madras,  and  about  eight  hundred 
between  Madras  and  Calcutta.  Thus  they  were  separated  from 
one  another  by  long  distances.  By  sea  it  required  many  days' 
sailing  to  pass  from  one  to  another,  and  by  land  the  difficult 
country,  mountain  chains,  and  hostile  native  population  made 
communication  almost  impossible. 

The  English  settlements,  which  altogether  included  only  a  few 
hundred  or  at  most  a  few  thousand  men,  were  not  under  the 
English  government  nor  did  they  govern  themselves.  They  were 

1  The  confusion  of  governments  led  to  much  confusion  in  the  titles  of 
the  greater  and  lesser  rulers  of  India.  The  native  Hindoo  name  for  a  ruler 
is  rajah,  which  has  the  same  root  as  the  Latin  word  rex.  Maha  rajah 
means  a  great  prince.  Nawabs,  or  nabobs,  were  the  viceroys  of  the  Mogul 
Empire.  The  Peishwa  was  the  military  head  under  the  Mahratta  rajah. 
Nizam  was  the  special  name  given  to  the  Mogul  viceroy  of  the  Deccan. 
The  emperor  at  Delhi  was  commonly  called  the  "  Great  Mogul."  There 
were  many  other  names  of  special  honor  or  family  tradition  used  by  the 
various  native  princes. 


INDIA 

about    1763 

0          100        200        300 


Knglish  Possessions 
French  Possessions 
Portuguese  Possessions 
Native  States 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       567 

established  and  ruled  and  their  officials  paid  by  the  British  East 
India  Company,  an  organization  of  English  merchants  with  head- 
quarters in  London  and  possessing  by  grant  from  the  English 
government  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  between  England  and  India. 
Each  of  the  three  settlements  was  governed  by  a  president  and 
council  appointed  by  the  company. 

For  many  years  these  trading  settlements,1  detached  from  one 
another  and  from  those  of  other  European  nations,  were  occupied 
merely  with  matters  of  trade  or  with  efforts  to  preserve  their  own 
security  in  the  midst  of  the  native  inhabitants.  But  some  time 
before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  one  of  them  at  least, 
Madras,  came  into  conflict  with  the  nearest  French  settlement, 
Pondicherry,  situated  on  the  coast  some  eighty  miles  to  the 
southward. 

511.  Dupleix.  —  The  governor  of  this  trading  post  of  the 
French  East  India  Company  was  a  man  of  genius  and  activity 
named  Dupleix.  He  was  not  satisfied  merely  to  protect  the 
small  colony  of  French  agents  and  traders  under  his  charge,  but 
was  ambitious  to  extend  his  power  and  that  of  the  French  govern- 
ment among  the  natives.  Dupleix  perceived  that  in  the  general 
disorganization  of  government  among  the  native  races  of  India 
the  Europeans  would  sooner  or  later  obtain  political  as  well  as 
trading  powers.  When  this  should  happen  the  French  and  the 
English  would  confront  one  another  as  rivals  for  control  in  India, 
and  he  determined  to  be  the  first  in  the  field.  With  great  skill 
and  labor  Dupleix  carried  out  two  lines  of  policy.  One  of  these 
was  to  weave  a  network  of  treaties  and  alliances  with  the  native 
princes  and  persons  of  influence  in  the  Carnatic  ; 2  the  other  was 

1  They  were  often  called  "  factories,"  because  a  factor  or  agent  of  the 
company  was  in  charge  of  each  of  them.     This  word  must  not  of  course 
be  confused  with  factory  in  the  sense  of  a  manufacturing  establishment. 

2  This  was  the  name  given  to  the  district  along  the  east  coast  of  the 
Deccan,  where  the  English  and  French  settlements  of  Madras  and  Pondi- 
cherry were  established. 


568  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

to  take  native  troops  into  the  service  of  the  French  company  and 
drill  and  organize  them  on  the  European  model.1  Dupleix  thus 
made  himself  well  known  and  influential  among  the  natives  and 
had  a  military  force  to  be  used  when  occasion  should  arise.  This 
opportunity  came  for  the  first  time  with  the  outbreak  in  1740  of 
the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  in  which  England  and  France 
were  on  opposite  sides.  Madras  was  immediately  attacked  and 
captured  by  a  French  fleet,  and  Dupleix  with  the  aid  of  one  of 
the  native  princes,  the  nabob  of  Arcot,  attacked  the  neighboring 
English  fort  of  St.  George  on  the  coast.  Fighting  went  almost 
invariably  in  favor  of  the  French  and  their  allies  until  the  peace 
of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  signed.  One  of  its  clauses  required  each 
country  to  give  back  its  conquests,  so  Madras  was  restored  to  the 
English. 

But  nominal  peace  between  France  and  England  was  no  bar- 
rier to  the  schemes  of  Dupleix;  there  were  still  the  contests 
among  the  native  rulers.  His  policy  and  success  during  the 
recent  contests  had  given  him  the  greatest  possible  prestige  and 
prominence.  From  Pondicherry  he  exercised  an  enormous  influ- 
ence, throwing  the  weight  of  his  personal  alliances  and  the  fight- 
ing power  of  his  sepoys  now  on  the  side  of  one  native  ruler,  now 
on  that  of  another.  He  was  in  fact  for  a  while  one  of  the  most 
powerful  of  Indian  rulers,  exercising  control,  directly  or  through 
the  native  princes  whom  he  had  placed  on  their  thrones,  over 
several  millions  of  men.  Thus  the  English  were  hemmed  in  by 
French  influence  and  power  on  the  coast  of  India  much  as  they 
were  in  America,  and  it  seemed  only  a  matter  of  time  till  they 
should  be  expelled  altogether. 

512.  Clive. — The  British  East  India  Company  had  never  at- 
tempted to  form  any  strong  body  of  soldiery  in  India.  In  imi- 
tation of  the  French  they  engaged  a  small  number  of  sepoys,  but 
for  such  military  duties  as  were  required  they  usually  relied  upon 

1  Such  native  soldiers  with  European  drill  and  equipment  were  known 
as  "  sepoys." 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       569 

their  employees,  who  were  for  the  most  part  without  any  special 
military  training.  Among  these  was  a  young  clerk  named  Robert 
Clive,  who  proved,  when  necessity  and  opportunity  arose,  to  have 
a  natural  gift  for  military  service.  In  the  rivalry  with  the  French 
he  gradually  developed  a  military  skill,  boldness,  and  genius 
which  made  him  one  of  the  world's  greatest  commanders. 

Like  the  French,  the  English  now  obtained  alliances  with  some 
of  the  native  princes,  took  sides  with  those  who  were  opposed  to 
the  French,  and  aided  them  in  their  contests. 

A  number  of  battles  were  fought  in  which  victory  usually  fell  to 
the  English,  and  within  two  or  three  years  the  French  and  their 
native  allies  had  been  repeatedly  conquered  and  English  influence 
in  turn  became  supreme.  In  1753  Clive  had  to  return  to  Eng- 
land on  account  of  ill  health,  Dupleix  was  recalled  to  France  in 
disgrace  on  account  of  his  failures,  and  a  treaty  was  made  between 
the  French  and  English  East  India  companies  by  which  they 
agreed  to  leave  conditions  in  the  south  of  India  in  their  existing 
state.  The  natives  of  the  Carnatic  had  become  habituated  to  the 
influence  of  Europeans,  but  the  question  as  to  whose  this  pre- 
dominant influence  should  be,  that  of  England  or  that  of  France, 
remained  undetermined. 

513.  Calcutta. — In  1756  a  terrible  tragedy  in  the  far  north 
brought  the  English  into  conflict  with  the  natives  of  that  region 
and  soon  pitted  them  against  the  French  there.  Some  disputes 
having  broken  out  between  the  English  at  their  little  trading 
post  of  Calcutta  and  Sura] ah  Dowlah,  the  cruel  and  dissipated 
nabob  of  Bengal,  within  whose  dominions  Calcutta  lay,  the  latter 
suddenly  advanced  upon  that  settlement  and  seized  it.  He  gave 
orders  that  the  merchants  who  had  been  captured  there  should 
be  thrown  into  the  cell  in  the  English  fort,  which  became  sadly 
famous  as  the  "  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta."  It  was  a  room  less  than 
twenty  feet  square,  with  but  a  few  windows  near  the  low  ceiling. 

The  prisoners  were  a  hundred  and  forty-six  in  number,  the 
weather  was  extremely  hot,  and  they  had  nothing  to  quench  their 


570  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

thirst.  During  a  night  of  horrors,  in  which  many  became  raving 
mad,  they  struggled  and  trampled  upon  one  another  in  frenzied 
efforts  to  get  near  the  windows,  till  one  hundred  and  twenty- three 
of  them  had  died  from  suffocation  or  from  being  trodden  down 
by  their  companions.  In  the  morning  the  twenty-three  survivors 
were  sent  by  the  nabob  as  prisoners  to  his  capital  at  Moorsheda- 
bad.  All  the  English  were  expelled  from  Bengal  and  their  fac- 
tory seized. 

The  news  of  this  catastrophe  soon  reached  Madras,  where  Clive 
had  just  arrived  with  restored  health  and  a  military  appointment 
as  commander  of  one  of  the  English  forts.  The  authorities  at 
Madras  determined  to  take  revenge  on  the  nabob  of  Bengal  for 
his  cruelty  and  to  restore  the  English  settlement  at  Calcutta. 
Clive  was  appointed  to  command  the  expedition,  and  within  a 
few  months  Calcutta  had  been  recaptured  and  the  nabob  forced 
to  enter  into  a  new  alliance  with  the  English.  But  here  also  was 
a  French  settlement  not  far  away,  that  of  Chandernagore,  and  the 
nabob,  in  his  anger  with  the  English,  turned  to  the  French, 
offering  them  his  special  favor  and  protection.  When  the  Seven 
Years'  War  broke  out  in  1756  the  peace  between  England  and 
France  in  India,  but  poorly  kept  at  best,  was  broken.  Clive 
secured  as  reinforcements  a  regiment  of  royal  troops  and  attacked 
and  destroyed  Chandernagore. 

514.  Plassey  and  Wandewash.  —  This  brought  Clive  and  the 
English  again  into  a  contest  with  Surajah  Dowlah.  In  the  won- 
derful battle  of  Plassey  in  1757  Clive,  with  a  little  army  consisting 
of. nine  hundred  English  soldiers  and  about  twenty-one  hundred 
sepoys,  defeated  the  nabob's  army  of  more  than  thirty  thousand 
men.  The  superiority  of  European  discipline,  equipment,  and 
leadership  over  vastly  greater  numbers  of  native  troops  was  con- 
clusively shown. 

Clive  had  plotted  with  one  of  the  nabob's  generals  before  the 
battle,  promising  to  reward  his  treachery  with  the  throne  of  Ben- 
gal. This  was  carried  out ;  the  old  nabob  was  deposed  and  soon 


0 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE       571 

afterwards  put  to  death,  and  the  newly  enthroned  prince  in  grati- 
tude gave  to  the  English  a  great  sum  of  money  and  extensive 
power  over  all  that  part  of  Bengal  surrounding  Calcutta.  Although 
peace  was  established  with  this  prince,  Clive  pressed  on  far  inland 
and  near  Patna  defeated  Shah  Allum,  the  Great  Mogul  himself. 
Clive  was  appointed  by  the  company  governor  general  of  the 
British  possessions  in  Bengal,  where  he  exercised  almost  sovereign 
powers. 

While  these  things  were  taking  place  in  Bengal  the  old  struggle 
between  the  French  and  English  in  the  south  of  India  was  renewed 
and  fought  to  a  conclusion.  When  the  war  in  Europe  broke  out 
a  new  French  commander  in  chief  named  Lally  was  sent  to  India 
to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Dupleix.  The  natives  had  small  part 
in  the  hard  struggles  which  followed  between  French  and  Eng- 
lish. After  many  contests  a  decisive  battle  was  fought  in  1760 
at  Wandewash,  in  which  Colonel  Coote,  an  officer  brought  up, 
like  Clive,  in  the  Indian  service,  completely  defeated  Lally  and 
the  French.  Fortress  after  fortress  belonging  to  the  French  was 
reduced,  and  finally  Pondicherry  itself  was  captured  and  destroyed. 
The  two  great  battles,  Plassey  in  the  north  in  1757  and  Wande- 
wash in  the  south  in  1760,  with  the  events  which  preceded  and 
followed  them,  placed  the  future  of  India  in  the  hands  of  the 
English.  Although  the  French  settlements  were  restored  to  them 
at  the  peace  and  rebuilt  they  were  no  longer  military  establish- 
ments, and  although  in  later  wars  the  French  in  India  showed 
hostility  to  England  they  never  again  became  serious  rivals.  In 
India,  as  in  America,  France  was  either  deprived  of  all  her  power 
or  reduced  to  relative  unimportance.  Her  greatness  lay  at  home, 
while  England's  had  become  world-wide. 

515.  The  Peace  of  Paris These  changes  were  all  embodied 

in  the  Peace  of  Paris,  which  in  1763  finally  brought  the  Seven 
Years'  War  to  a  close.  Shortly  before  the  peace  Spain  had  been 
drawn  into  the  war  as  an  ally  of  France,  and  the  English  fleets 
had  captured  many  of  her  island  possessions,  including  Havana 


572 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


in  Cuba  and  Manila  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  By  the  peace 
England  gained  from  France  Canada  and  all  her  American 
possessions  westward  to  the  Mississippi,  four  of  the  islands  of  the 
West  Indies,  some  former  French  possessions  in  Africa,  and  a 
promise  not  to  fortify  the  French  settlements  in  India.  From 
Spain  England  obtained  Florida,  giving  back  to  her  in  return  all 
recent  conquests.  By  this  treaty  England  reached  the  greatest 
extent  of  military  glory,  power,  and  territory  which  she  was 
destined  to  attain  within  the  eighteenth  century. 

An  expedition  sent  out  some  years  afterwards  indicated  some 
of  the  other  directions  in  which  her  colonies  and  settlements 

were  later  to  extend.  This  expe- 
dition was  sent  in  1768  by  the  Royal 
Society  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  to 
make  observations  of  the  transit  of 
Venus.  In  command  of  the  vessels 
as  navigator  was  Captain  Cook.  He 
made  many  surveys  of  the  smaller 
islands  of  the  Pacific,  then  circum- 
navigated the  great  island  of  New 
Zealand,  and  sailed  along  the  eastern 
coast  of  Australia,  naming  Botany 
Bay  and  claiming  possession  for  Eng- 
land of  the  region  which  afterwards  became  the  rich  and  popu- 
lous colony  of  New  South  Wales. 

516.  Summary  of  the  Period. — During  the  seventy-five  years 
lying  between  the  Revolution  of  1688  and  the  Peace  of  Paris  of 
1763  the  new  line  of  kings,  the  Orange-Stuarts,  and  their  succes- 
sors, the  House  of  Hanover,  kept  the  throne,  notwithstanding 
the  struggle  of  1690  and  the  two  Jacobite  risings  of  1715  and 
1745.  All  desire  on  the  part  of  the  English  people  to  return 
to  the  old  line  gradually  passed  away.  This  was  partly  at  least 
a  result  of  the  unimportance  into  which  the  office  of  king  was 
gradually  falling.  The  power  of  parliament  was  really  supreme. 


Medal  given  to  Captain  Cook 


FOUNDATION   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE       573 

England  was  practically  an  aristocracy,  governed  by  the  leaders 
of  the  classes  which  were  represented  in  parliament.  The  growth 
of  the  power  of  parliament,  of  the  cabinet  which  drew  its  power 
from  parliament,  and  of  the  prime  minister  who  could  speak  in 
the  name  of  the  majority  in  parliament,  had  reduced  the  royal 
power  to  little  more  than  a  right  to  accept  the  advice  which 
the  ministry  gave.  "  Ministers  are  the  king  in  this  country," 
George  II  once  said,  and  his  complaint  was  scarcely  an  exag- 
geration of  the  fact. 

Commerce  and  the  wealth  drawn  from  commerce  were  becom- 
ing constantly  more  important  and  more  influential.  Although 
England  was  still  fundamentally  an  agricultural  country  and  the 
landed  aristocracy  were  the  most  influential  class  in  the  nation,  yet 
the  interests  of  commerce  and  the  prominence  of  money  ques- 
tions were  far  greater  than  they  had  been  in  any  previous  period. 
The  Bank  of  England  was  founded  in  1694,  the  money  to  carry 
on  the  wars  was  mostly  borrowed,  and  the  national  debt  was 
made  larger  and  larger. 

Above  all,  the  interests  of  England  had  spread  from  one  half 
of  the  little  island  of  Britain  to  a  world- wide  empire.  The  par- 
liaments of  England  and  Scotland  were  united  in  1707  and 
Ireland  was  more  than  ever  subordinated  to  the  prejudices  and 
interests  of  England.  By  interests  and  ambitions  outside  of  her 
own  island  limits  England  was  led  to  take  part  in  the  three  great 
wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  which  were  closed  by  the  treaties 
of  Utrecht  in  1713,  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  1748,  and  of  Paris  in 
1763.  In  the  last  of  these  she  secured  control  of  the  vast  domin- 
ions of  North  America  and  India,  and  she  laid  down  through 
her  explorers  the  general  courses  in  which  her  later  civilization 
was  to  flow.  In  politics,  in  literature,  in  science,  and  in  reli- 
gion the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  was,  at  its  best,  a 
period  of  reasonableness,  moderation,  and  polish ;  at  its  worst,  a 
period  of  corruption,  formality,  and  unbelief  in  any  except  mate- 
rial objects.  Before  this  period  was  over,  however,  Methodism 


574  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  the  evangelical  movement  aroused  the  nation  not  only  to 
religious  interests  but  also  to  a  more  active  intellectual  life.  In 
politics  William  Pitt  had  awakened  a  new  fire  of  patriotism,  and 
parliament,  if  not  less  corrupt,  became  at  least  responsive  to 
higher  and  nobler  impulses. 


General  Reading.  —  MACAULAY,  History  of  England,  Vols.  III-V,  covers 
the  earlier  part  of  this  period.  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  ix,  sects.  8-10, 
chap,  x,  sect.  i.  MORRIS,  The  Age  of  Queen  Anne  and  The  Early  Han- 
overians (Epochs  of  Modern  History),  cover  most  of  the  period.  MACAULAY, 
dive  and  Chatham.  LECKY,  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  is  a  large 
work  in  eight  volumes  but  much  of  it  is  devoted  to  Ireland  and  America. 
Only  Vols.  I-III  are  devoted  entirely  to  English  affairs.  The  spread  of 
colonies  is  finely  described  in  SEELEY,  The  Expansion  of  England.  The 
personal  history  of  the  kings  of  the  period  is  well  described  in  THACKERAY, 
The  Four  Georges.  The  foundation  of  the  English  dominion  in  India  is 
described  in  INNES,  Short  History  of  the  British  in  India.  TRAILL,  Wil- 
liam III,  MORLEY,  Walpole  and  Chatham  (Twelve  English  Statesmen), 
and  MALLESON,  Lord  Clive  and  Dupleix  (Rulers  of  India),  are  valuable 
biographies. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  Act  of  Settlement  is  printed  in  ADAMS 
and  STEPHENS,  Select  Documents,  No.  243.  A  number  of  short  selections 
from  contemporary  writers,  admirably  chosen  and  including  a  number 
from  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  are  published  in  a  small 
volume,  called  English  Prose,  in  the  Camelot  series.  Several  varied 
and  interesting  illustrative  extracts  are  given  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book, 
Nos.  110-118  ;  and  in  COLBY,  Selections  from  the  Sources,  Nos.  83-96. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  THACKERAY,  Henry  Esmond,  belongs  to  the 
period  of  Queen  Anne,  and  The  Virginians  to  a  time  somewhat  later. 
SCOTT,  Black  Dwarf,  Rob  Roy,  The  Heart  of  Midlothian,  and  Waverley, 
all  fall  within  this  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Mrs.  CHARLES,  Diary 
of  Mrs.  Kitty  Trevylyan,  is  a  story  of  the  Methodists.  CAMPBELL, 
Lochiel,  is  a  poem  referring  to  the  battle  of  Culloden.  The  well-known 
little  poem  of  Southey  refers  to  the  battle  of  Blenheim. 

Special  Topics. —  (i)  The  Massacre  of  Glencoe,  KENDALL,  Source-Book, 
No.  102  ;  (2)  the  Battle  of  Plassey,  ibid.,  No.  117  ;  (3)  the  Battle  of  Quebec, 
ibid.,  No.  118;  (4)  the  Jacobite  Rebellions,  LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  195-200; 
(5)  Jacobite  Songs,  Scottish  National  Songs;  (6)  the  Duke  of  Marlborough, 
GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  ix,  sect.  9;  (7)  Walpole,  ibid.,  sect.  10; 


FOUNDATION    OF   THE  .BRITISH   EMPIRE       575 

(8)  Wesley  and  Whitefield,  ibid.,  chap,  x,  sect,  i  ;  (9)  Voyages  of  Exploration 
and  Piracy  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  V, 
pp.  24-34;  (10)  Literature  in  the  Age  of  Walpole,  ibid.,  pp.  72-88;  (n) 
Agriculture  in  the  Early  Eighteenth  Century,  tbid,,  pp.  99-109;  (12)  The 
Cabinet  System,  MONTAGUE,  English  Constitutional  History,  pp.  163-173  ; 
(13)  the  Ascendency  of  France  under  Louis  XIV,  ROBINSON,  Western 
Europe,  pp.  495-508. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

THE     INDUSTRIAL    REVOLUTION,    THE    AMERICAN    REVOLU- 
TION, AND  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.     1763-1815 

517.  George  III.  — In  1760  George  II  had  died  and  his  grand- 
son George  III,  a  young  man  of  twenty- two,  had  come  to  the 
throne.  He  had  been  born  in  England  and  was  the  first  king  of 
his  family  who  was  not  more  of  a  German  than  an  Englishman. 
He  was  the  only  one  of  the  four  Georges  who  had  qualities  which 
were  likely  to  endear  him  to  his  people.  He  was  a  man  of  good 
moral  character,  plain  in  his  habits,  faithful  to  his  duties,  sincerely 
religious,  dignified,  and  kind.  Along  with  these  attractive  traits 
of  character  he  had  some  others  which  were  not  so  well  suited  to  a 
king  of  England.  He  was  naturally  narrow-minded,  prejudiced, 
and  unspeakably  obstinate.  His  early  life  had  been  unwisely 
arranged.  After  the  death  of  his  father,  Frederick,  prince  of 
Wales,  his  mother  had  brought  him  up  in  almost  entire  seclusion. 
His  education  had  been  neglected,  and  he  had  had  no  opportu- 
nity to  substitute  for  it  the  broadening  influence  which  comes 
from  contact  with  many  men. 

Along  with  his  mother's  teachings  of  piety,  courage,  courtesy, 
and  respect  for  women,  which  he  never  afterwards  lost,  some  of 
her  other  precepts  had  also  taken  only  too  deep  root  in  his  mind. 
"  George,  be  a  king,"  she  enjoined  frequently  upon  him.  Her  ideas 
of  the  proper  authority  of  a  king  were  drawn  from  the  example  of 
certain  rulers  on  the  continent  of  Europe  at  this  time,  and  these 
ideas  she  had  impressed  strongly  upon  her  son.  Some  of  his 
tutors  imparted  to  him  the  same  teachings.  He  gained  there- 
fore at  an  early  period  a  view  of  the  powers  and  duties  of  his 

576 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       577 


position  which,  backed  by  his  ignorance  and  his  obstinacy,  could 
not  fail  to  be  harmful.  If  he  had  been  willing  to  drop  into  the 
background,  as  the  last  three  sovereigns  had  done,  and  allow  the 
ministers  and  parliament  to  govern  the  country,  it  would  have 
made  little  difference  what  his  views  on  current  matters  were ; 
but  George  was  determined  to  choose  his  ministers  himself  and 
to  exercise  personal  influence  over  their  policy.  He  did  not 
plan  to  rule  without  parliament,  as  Charles  I  had  thought  possible, 
but  he  did  expect  to  control 
the  ministers  and  through  them 
to  exercise  an  influence  upon 
parliament. 

518.  The  New  Ministry. - 
Very  soon,  therefore,  the  king 
seized  an  opportunity  to  get  his 

old  tutor  and  guardian,  Lord  /  /I  WV^PF\  ///  N 
Bute,  into  the  cabinet.  One 
by  one  the  old  ministers  found 
their  position  unsatisfactory  and 
resigned.  In  1761  Pitt  himself 
had  failed  to  convince  the  cab- 
inet of  the  desirability  of  con- 
tinuing the  war  and  resigned. 

In  each  case  of  resignation  a  new  minister  was  selected  who  was 
more  satisfactory  to  the  king  and  to  Lord  Bute.  These,  being 
generally  opponents  of  the  late  ministers,  were  Tories,  and  when 
in  a  short  time  Lord  Bute  became  prime  minister,  a  Tory  ministry 
was  in  power  for  the  first  time  for  almost  forty  years.  After  a 
number  of  changes,  including  a  temporary  return  of  Pitt,  who 
was  at  the  same  time  made  earl  of  Chatham,  in  1770  Lord  North 
became  prime  minister,  representing  not  so  much  any  party  as  he 
did  the  personal  wishes  and  policy  of  the  king  himself.  Although 
Lord  North  was  an  able  man,  he  was  of  a  good-natured,  some- 
what yielding  disposition  and  made  an  ideal  prime  minister  for 


5/8  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  king's  wishes.  He  was  always  willing  to  carry  out  his  plans 
if  it  were  in  any  way  possible. 

For  the  next  twelve  years  he  remained  in  office,  and  during 
that  time  the  king's  influence  over  the  ministry  was  greater  than  it 
had  been  since  the  seventeenth  century,  In  parliament  a  major- 
ity, known  commonly  as  the  "  king's  friends,"  was  obtained  and 
kept  pretty  steadily  in  existence.  It  was  held  together  for  the 
most  part  by  the  same  old  methods  of  bribery  and  favoritism  that 
had  been  so  influential  for  a  long  period  preceding. 

The  power  of  the  king  in  the  government  and  his  increasing 
influence  over  the  destinies  of  the  nation  were  all  the  more 
anomalous  because  many  changes  were  now  in  progress  which 
seemed  likely  to  break  up  the  old  organization  of  society  and  to 
bring  new  classes  of  men  into  power. 

519.  The  Industrial  Revolution.  — Agriculture  had  always  been 
the  principal  industry  of  England,  and  the  landholding  class  had 
always  exercised  the  strongest  influence  over  the   government. 
During  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  commerce  was, 
however,  becoming  a  serious  rival,  and  even  manufacturing  was 
spread  widely  through  certain  parts  of  the  country.     All  these 
occupations  alike  —  farming,  trading,  and  manufacturing  —  were 
carried  on  by  the  same  methods  as  had  been  in  use  for  centu- 
ries.    During  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  however,  a 
rapid  and  extensive  series  of  changes  began.    These  were  by  far 
the  most  important  in  the  field  of  manufacturing.    There  were  so 
many  new  inventions  and  these  exercised  such  a  deep  influence 
on  later  times  that  the  whole  series  of  changes  is  often  described 
as  the-"  Industrial  Revolution."    By  this  is  meant  that  the  changes 
were  as  complete  in  the  field  of  manufactures  and  in  the  manner 
of  life  of  the  mass  of  the  people  as  were  those  caused  in  political 
life  by  the  Revolution  of  1688. 

520.  The  Spinning  Jenny  and  the  Water  Frame.  — One  of  the 
first  inventions  in  this  series  was  the  spinning  jenny,  a  machine 
invented  in  1764,  which  could  be  turned  by  hand,  but  which  would 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       579 

spin  a  number  of  threads  at  the  same  time,  instead  of  only  one,  as 
had  been  done  by  the  old  spinning  wheels  which  had  been  used 
until  this  time.  Very  soon  a  man  named  Arkwright  invented 
an  improved  machine  which  could  spin  much  more  rapidly  and 
evenly  than  the  jenny  but  which  had  to  be  driven  by  some  arti- 
ficial power.  Water  wheels  were  customarily  used  for  this  machine 
and  it  therefore  became  known  as  the  "  water  frame."  The  first 
patent  for  the  water  frame  was  taken  out  in  1769.  The  course 
of  improvement  and  invention  once  begun,  others  were  rapidly 
made,  until  spinning  by  machinery  came  to  be  done  in  enormous 
quantities  and  at  extremely  cheap  rates.  Some  time  afterwards 
a  power  loom  was  invented  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  hand 
looms;  and  in  the  other  processes  connected  with  the  manufac- 
ture of  cotton,  woolen,  linen,  and  other  woven  goods  there  was 
the  same  wonderful  improvement.  Later  this  was  extended  to 
other  kinds  of  manufactured  goods  and  the  process  of  introducing 
new  machinery  has  gone  on  almost  ever  since. 

521.  Water  Power  and  Steam  Power. — The  application  of  power 
to  machinery  was  almost  as   important  as  the  newly  invented 
machinery  itself.     At  first  water  power  alone  was  used,  and  the 
machines  were  put  up  in  buildings  along  rapidly  flowing  streams 
where  dams  could  be  built  and  water  wheels  run. 

It  had  long  been  known,  however,  that  steam  could  produce 
motion,  and  steam  power  had  even  been  used  in  a  rough  way  to 
work  pumps  in  mines.  But  James  Watt  now  set  to  work  to  over- 
come the  difficulties  heretofore  in  the  way  of  making  steam 
engines  really  useful,  and  in  1769  applied  for  his  first  patent  for 
improvements.  -Little  by  little  he  brought  his  work  nearer  to 
perfection  until  in  1781  with  a  partner  he  began  building  engines 
which  produced  power  for  general  manufacturing  purposes.  They 
soon  came  to  be  used  even  more  than  water  power  for  running 
cotton  and  other  factories. 

522.  The  Factory  System. — The  newly  invented  machinery 
was  large  and  heavy,  and  the  advantage  of  running  a  great  deal 


580  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

of  it  together  was  so  great  that  large  buildings  or  factories  were 
put  up  especially  for  the  purpose,  either  along  the  streams  that 
furnished  the  power  or,  after  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine, 
wherever  it  was  convenient.  Great  numbers  of  men,  women, 
and  children  were  engaged  in  these  large  factories^  and  the  old 
manufacturing  in  private  houses  or  small  shops  which  had  been 
customary  for  centuries  came  almost  entirely  to  an  end.  Many 
of  those  who  were  engaged  in  spinning,  weaving,  and  other  indus- 
tries carried  on  by  the  old  methods,  and  who  could  not  readily 
change  to  the  new,  suffered  intensely  from  loss  of  work  and 
decreased  prices  for  their  goods.  To  these  the  factory  system 
was  the  cause  of  great  misery.  The  large  factories  were  very 
different  from  anything  before  known  in  England.  They  gave 
employment  to  vast  numbers  of  persons  and  produced  great 
quantities  of  goods  which  were  sold  at  home  and  abroad  and 
brought  vast  wealth  to  England.  The  factory  laborers  formed  a 
large  body  of  the  population  with  interests  and  characteristics  very 
different  from  those  of  the  farm  laborers  and  the  lower  classes 
of  the  old  towns.  The  men  who  carried  on  the  factories,  invested 
capital  in  them,  and  became  wealthy  from  their  produce  made 
another  group  of  the  upper  classes  in  England  equally  different 
from  the  landowners  of  the  country  and  the  merchants  of  the 
cities. 

The  custom  of  manufacturing  goods  in  large  establishments 
with  improved  machinery,  artificial  power,  and  large  bodies  of 
laborers  under  the  direction  of  employers  or  managers  has  come 
therefore  to  be  spoken  of  as  an  entirely  new  social  organization, 
and  is  often  called  the  "  factory  system  of  industry." 

523.  The  Manufacturing  Districts.  —  The  part  of  England 
where  these  changes  were  principally  taking  place  was  in  the 
northwestern  and  northern  counties.  There  were  three  reasons 
for  this.  In  the  first  place  this  was  one  of  the  regions  in  which 
the  old-fashioned  spinning  and  weaving  of  goods  in  the  house- 
holds of  the  weavers  had  been  most  widespread,  and  there  was 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       581 

therefore  a  foundation  for  the  later  manufacturing.  Then  the 
configuration  of  the  country  in  that  part  of  England  gives  to  the 
streams  a  comparatively  short  and  rapid  course  from  their  source 
to  the  sea.  This  made  them  capable  of  furnishing  excellent 
water  power  for  the  early  factories.  Finally,  most  of  the  coal 
fields  lie  in  that  part  of  the  country,  so  that  even  when  steam 
power  had  been  introduced  and  there  was  need  of  coal  to  pro- 
duce it  there  was  no  necessity  for  a  change  of  location  of  the 
manufacturing  establishments.  Many  of  the  small  towns  of  that 
region  grew  large  and  populous,  and  others  which  had  been  mere 
villages  grew  to  be  busy  manufacturing  towns.  In  many  places 
hundreds  of  tall  smoking  chimneys  can  be  seen  from  one  spot, 
and  a  close  and  active  population  has  spread  over  a  region  which 
during  the  middle  ages  and  earlier  modern  times  was  the  most 
thinly  settled  and  the  most  backward  part  of  England.  London 
also  became  a  great  manufacturing  city,  and  thus  one  more  cause 
was  given  for  its  vast  and  ever-increasing  population. 

524.  Roads  and  Canals. — The  improvements  in  methods  of 
production  made  during  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century 
were  more  conspicuous  and  important  in  manufacturing  than  they 
were  in  any  other  direction,  but  much  the  same  kind  of  changes 
took  place  in  a  lesser  degree  in  other  lines.  One  of  these  was 
in  communication  and  transportation.  The  roads  of  the  country 
were  extremely  bad,  many  of  them  having  scarcely  been  properly 
repaired  since  Roman  times.  They  were  generally  under  the 
charge  of  the  authorities  of  each  locality,  who  had  not  the  means 
or  perhaps  the  inclination  to  improve  them  or  even  to  keep  them 
in  repair.  Coaches  therefore  were  continually  sinking  into 
sloughs,  and  goods  and  persons  were  much  more  commonly 
carried  on  horseback  than  by  wheeled  vehicles.  From  1800 
onward  two  engineers,  Telford  and  Macadam,  turned  their  atten- 
tion to  the  construction  of  good  roads,  invented  new  methods  of 
building  them,  and  induced  the  authorities  in  a  number  of  places 
to  go  to  the  expense  necessary  to  carry  out  their  plans.  A  numbei 


582  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

of  turnpike  companies  were  also  formed  which  secured  the  right 
of  way,  made  good  roads,  and  then  reimbursed  themselves  by 
charging  toll  for  their  use. 

In  1761  the  first  extensive  canal  was  opened;  and  before  the 
end  of  the  century  a  number  of  canals  were  completed,  extending 
across  England  in  several  places,  making  a  series  of  easy  and 
cheap  ways  for  the  transportation  of  goods,  and  connecting  many 
inland  districts. 

525.  Coal  and  Iron.  — Coal  and  iron  were  also  mined  in  much 
larger  quantities  and  by  improved  methods.     Coal  was  first  used 
to  smelt  iron  in  1760.     Enough  of  these  substances  for  fuel  for 
the  new  manufacturing  and  material  for  the  new  machinery  was 
readily  produced  in  the  northern  and  western  districts  of  England, 
and  vast  quantities  were  mined  for  purposes  of  export.     Many  of 
these  processes  only  reached  their  greatest  advancement  during 
the  next  century,  but  they  were  all  well  established  during  the 
period  under  discussion.    Thus  a  number  of  the  most  valuable  of 
those  physical  properties  and  characteristics  of  England,  which 
were  mentioned  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book,  —  her  streams 
and  inland  water  ways,  her  iron,  and  above  all  her  coal,  —  after 
lying  almost  unused  for  most  of  her  history,  only  became  of  real 
value  to  her  at  this  late  date  in  her  career. 

526.  Inclosures.  — Improvements  similar  to  those  in  manufac- 
tures, mining,  and  transportation  were  made  in  crops,  in  cattle, 
and  in  methods  of  cultivation  during  the  middle  and  later  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century.     English  agriculture,  like  her  manufac- 
tures and  commerce,  became  the  best  in  the  world. 

Along  with  these  improvements  the  process  of  inclosing  the 
open  fields,  which  had  been  so  conspicuous  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, was  begun  again.  There  was  not  the  same  violence  nor  dis- 
regard of  customary  rights  as  at  that  time.  An  act  of  parliament 
was  obtained  to  authorize  each  process  of  combining  and  redivid- 
ing  the  old  open  agricultural  lands,  and  the  legal  claims  of  tenants 
and  small  holders  were  carefully  protected.  Nevertheless  there 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       583 

was  much  suffering  during  the  change.  Many  who  had  been 
small  farmers  could  not  keep  up  with  the  new  methods,  and  either 
became  laborers  on  the  farms  of  larger  farmers  or  left  the  coun- 
try and  went  into  the  factory  towns.  In  this  way  a  large  class  of 
small  farmers  disappeared  and  another  break  was  made  with  the 
conditions  of  earlier  England.  Many  a  laborer  also  who  had  form- 
erly made  use  of  the  common  as  pasture  land  for  his  cow,  goat, 
donkey,  or  geese  now  found  it  inclosed  and  his  old  privilege  lost. 

527.  John  Wilkes. — These  changes  among  the  people,  how- 
ever, had  no  corresponding  effect  on  the  government  of  England. 
Parliament  was  still  made  up  of  the  same  classes  that  had  long 
had  control  of  it,  and  often  acted  with  the  king  in  entire  opposi- 
tion to  the  feelings  and  wishes  of  the  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  country.  An  instance  of  this  was  the  affair  of  John  Wilkes. 
Wilkes  was  a  man  of  low  moral  and  political  principles,  who  went 
into  public  life  to  gratify  his  ambitions  and  further  his  fortunes. 
He  had  good  gifts  as  a  writer,  speaker,  and  social  companion, 
was  elected  to  parliament,  and  for  notoriety's  sake  threw  himself 
into  opposition  to  the  king,  the  ministry,  and  the  majority  with 
reckless  boldness.  He  thus  won  the  reputation  of  being  an 
intrepid  friend  of  the  people.  In  a  paper  which  he  edited, 
called  the  North  Briton,  he  made  severe  attacks  upon  the  min- 
istry, upon  many  special  friends  of  the  king,  and  upon  others 
high  in  office  or  in  influence.  No.  45  of  his  journal  was  par- 
ticularly outspoken  and  abusive.  When  it  appeared,  at  the  king's 
urgent  request  he  was  prosecuted  for  libel  and  sedition,  though 
it  would  evidently  require  much  stretching  of  the  laws  to  prove 
him  guilty  of  such  a  crime. 

His  arrest  was  declared  illegal  by  one  of  the  judges  on  ac- 
count of  his  membership  in  parliament  and  for  other  reasons. 
The  House  of  Commons  then  expelled  him  and  ordered  the 
obnoxious  newspaper  to  be  burned  by  the  hangman.  No  longer 
protected  by  the  privileges  of  parliament,  he  was  then  convicted 
of  libel.  In  the  meantime  he  had  fought  two  duels,  in  one  of 


584 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


which  he  had  been  almost  killed,  and  had  gone  to  France  to 
recuperate  in  health  and  reputation.  Not  appearing  before  par- 
liament to  resist  his  expulsion  or  before  the  court  to  receive  sen- 
tence, he  was  outlawed.  His  opponents,  the  king,  the  ministers, 
and  the  majority  of  parliament,  had  triumphed  and  apparently 
crushed  him. 

His  reckless,  profligate  life,  profane  speech,  and  scandalous 
writings  were  such  as  would  seem  likely  to  deprive  him  of  general 
sympathy.  Nevertheless,  strange  to  say,  Wilkes  was  one  of  the 
most  popular  men  in  P^ngland.  Many 
towns  passed  resolutions  in  his  honor  and 
the  government  of  the  city  of  London 
ordered  his  portrait  painted  and  hung  in 
the  guildhall  with  an  inscription,  "In 
Honor  of  the  Jealous  Assertor  of  English 
Liberty  by  Law."  When  he  returned  to 
England  his  outlawry  was  removed,  but 
he  was  sentenced  to  a  long  term  of  im- 
prisonment for  the  libel.  Notwithstand- 
ing this  the  county  of  Middlesex  elected 
him  for  a  second  time  its  representative 

uT,     in  parliament.     Again  on  the  urgency  of 
John  Wilkes  and  No.  45 

of  the  North  Briton  the  kinS  the  House  of  Commons  expelled 

him ;  but  still  again  he  was  elected  by  a 

practically  unanimous  vote.  Parliament  refused  to  admit  him  and 
declared  him  incapable  of  ever  sitting  in  that  body.  Neverthe- 
less his  constituency  again  elected  him,  and  this  undignified  con- 
test between  parliament  and  the  voters  was  repeated  yet  again. 
He  was  now  at  the  height  of  his  popularity,  and  "Wilkes  and 
Liberty"  and  "Wilkes  and  Forty-five"  were  common  cries  over 
all  England.  The  mystic  number  "  45  "  was  inscribed  on  the 
houses  and  shops  of  men  who  wished  popularity,  and  was  worn 
by  many  as  a  badge.  When  he  was  released  from  imprisonment 
he  was  elected  lord  mayor  of  London,  and  gifts,  legacies,  popular 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       585 

applause,  and  testimonials  of  approval  and  gratitude  poured  in 
upon  him  from  all  sides. 

528.  The  Junius  Letters.  —  Among  the  pamphleteers  and  writers 
of  letters  in  the  newspapers  during  this  excitement  there  was  one 
who  attracted  special  attention.     He  signed  himself  "Junius," 
but  it  was  then  and  has  always  since  remained  quite  uncertain  who 
he  really  was.     The  letters  appeared  in  a  newspaper  called  the 
Public  Advertiser,  and  were  published  from  time  to  time  between 
1768  and  1772.     They  were  written  in  a  good  style,  vigorous  and 
clear;  they  attacked  the  king  and  the  king's  friends  with  bitter 
invective ;  and  above  all  they  were  written  by  some  one  behind 
the  scenes,  who  knew  all  the  private  scandals  of  the  time  and  did 
not  hesitate  to  use  them  for  political  effect.     They  were  repub- 
lished  in  all  the  newspapers  and  magazines,  were  read  and  quoted 
everywhere,  and  goaded  the  king  and  ministers  to  fury.     As  the 
letters  were  anonymous  this  anger  could  only  be  satisfied  by  prose- 
cuting for  libel  the  editors  of  the  newspaper  publishing  them. 
The  jury,  however,  declared  that,  although  the  editor  was  guilty 
of  publishing  the  letters,  he  was  not  guilty  of  libel. 

The  willingness  to  make  a  popular  hero  of  such  a  man  as 
Wilkes  and  to  support  him  against  king,  ministers,  and  the  major- 
ity in  parliament,  and  the  unwillingness  of  a  jury  to  punish  the 
publishers  of  the  Junius  letters,  show  that  the  system  of  government 
of  the  time,  a  corrupt  parliament  elected  by  a  small  part  of  the 
nation  and  influenced  by  an  intriguing  and  obstinate  king,  was 
in  as  complete  opposition  to  the  will  of  the  people  of  England  as 
any  despotism  could  be. 

529.  Grievances   in   America. — This   system   of   government 
awakened  the  same  kind  of  opposition  in  a  portion  of  the  British 
dominions  where  conditions  were  more  favorable  to  the  success 
of  the  opposition  than  in  England  itself.     This  was  in  the  Amer- 
ican colonies.     There  had  frequently  been  conflicts  of  interest 
between  the  colonies  and  the  home  government,  but  these  dis- 
putes had  never  yet  become  embittered.     The  policy  of  England, 


586  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

like  that  of  other  European  countries  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  was  to  use  her  colonies  for  her  own  interests. 
When  the  colonists  began  to  manufacture  woolen  goods,  hats, 
wrought  iron,  and  steel,  laws  were  passed  forbidding  them  to 
export  these  products  or  to  send  them  from  one  place  to  another 
within  the  colonies.  Manufacturing  consequently  died  out,  as  it 
was  intended  that  it  should,  the  colonists  remained  agriculturists, 
and  bought  their  manufactured  goods  from  the  mother  country. 

The  Navigation  Acts l  were  intended  to  increase  the  prosperity 
of  English  merchants  and  shipbuilders  and  provide  the  govern- 
ment with  plenty  of  ships  and  sailors  in  case  of  war.  But  these 
acts  were  adverse  to  the  interests  of  the  colonists.  They  pro- 
hibited them  from  exporting  sugar,  tobacco,  and  several  other 
articles  produced  in  the  colonies  to  any  country  except  England 
and  her  possessions ;  forbade  the  importation  of  any  European 
goods  except  such  as  should  be  brought  directly  from  England 
or  should  have  paid  specially  heavy  duties  and  been  specially 
authorized ;  and  allowed  no  trading  with  colonial  ports  to  any 
except  British  vessels.  The  Navigation  Acts  were  not  as  burden- 
some to  the  colonists  as  might  be  supposed  because  they  had 
not  been  strictly  enforced.  Smuggling  was  a  regular  occupation 
even  of  respectable  business  houses  at  Salem,  Boston,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  and  other  colonial  ports ;  and  as  a  matter  of  fact 
the  colonists  kept  up  a  profitable  though  an  illegal  trade  with  the 
French,  Spanish,  and  Dutch  West  Indies.  This  violation  of  the 
laws  may  fairly  have  been  looked  upon  as  more  of  a  grievance 
to  the  home  government  than  the  laws  themselves  were  to  the 
colonists. 

530.  The  Stamp  Act.  —  After  the  close  of  the  French  war  in 
1763  many  of  these  conditions  were  altered.  The  old  days  of 
letting  the  colonies  drift  had  passed  and  a  stricter  policy  was 
begun.  The  English  government,  having  obtained  Cape  Breton, 
Canada,  and  Florida  by  the  Peace  of  Paris,  organized  them  as 
1  See  pp.  456,  457. 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       587 

three  new  colonies  and  began  to  make  arrangements  for  their 
defense,  as  well  as  for  that  of  the  older  colonies,  from  the  Indians 
and  from  France  and  Spain,  who  would  probably  try  to  regain 
them.  It  was  proposed  to  establish  in  America  an  army  of  ten 
thousand  men  for  this  purpose.  The  number  of  crown  officials  in 
America  was  also  to  be  made  larger  and  the  expense  correspond- 
ingly greater.  To  meet  these  expenses  and  at  the  same  time  to 
check  the  colonial  disregard  of  the  Navigation  Acts,  which  was  a 
constant  complaint  at  home,  the  ministry  proposed  to  adopt  a 
new  policy.  The  first  point  of  this  plan  was  to  enforce  the  Navi- 
gation Acts  by  sending  revenue  vessels  to  patrol  the  American 
coast,  and  by  prosecuting  American  offenders  against  the  acts  in 
the  vice-admiralty  courts.  The  second  part  of  the  plan  was  to 
provide  one  half  the  necessary  funds  for  the  payment  of  soldiers 
and  office  holders  in  America  by  increasing  the  taxes  on  colonial 
importations  and  by  laying  a  stamp  tax.  The  stamp  tax  required 
the  use  in  the  colonies  of  stamped  paper  for  deeds,  wills,  con- 
tracts, and  all  other  legal  documents.  This  stamped  paper, 
which  could  be  bought  only  from  government  agents,  constituted 
a  tax  on  all  the  colonists  who  had  occasion  to  carry  on  any  legal 
business. 

Opposition  to  the  "Stamp  Act,"  as  this  statute  was  called, 
immediately  showed  itself.  Resolutions  were  carried  in  some  of 
the  colonial  legislatures  declaring  that  the  colonists  had  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  English  citizens,  including  control  of 
their  own  taxes,  and  that  the  English  parliament  had  no  right  to 
levy  taxes  upon  the  American  colonists,  because  they  had  no 
representation  there.  There  was  a  serious  riot  in  Boston  and  the 
officers  who  undertook  to  sell  the  stamped  paper  were  mobbed. 
Delegates  from  nine  of  the  colonies  met  at  New  York  in  1765, 
in  what  was  called  the  "  Stamp  Act  Congress,"  and  issued  a  dec- 
laration of  what  they  considered  their  rights. 

531.  American  and  English  Ideas  of  Representation.  —  In  the 
American  colonies  an  idea  of  representation  had  grown  up  which 


588  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

was  quite  unfamiliar  in  England.  In  the  colonial  legislatures  the 
great  body  of  the  people  were  represented,  and  the  colonists  had 
grown  to  feel  that  only  those  for  whom  they  actually  voted  could 
properly  make  laws  for  them  or  tax  them.  While  they  acknowl- 
edged their  dependence  on  the  English  crown,  they  believed  that 
parliament  represented  the  people  of  England  only,  and  that  their 
colonial  legislatures  were  coordinate  with  that  body. 

In  England  representation  instead  of  being  a  personal  was  a 
class  matter.  Parliament  included  the  nobles,  the  great  church- 
men, and  the  commons.  The  last  class,  according  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  law,  included  all  Englishmen  belonging  to  the 
untitled  classes.  It  made  no  difference  whether  a  man  had  an 
opportunity  to  vote  for  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  or 
not.  If  he  was  an  Englishman  and  was  not  a  peer,  he  was  repre- 
sented by  the  House  of  Commons  and  bound  by  its  actions. 

The  colonists  were  therefore  quite  sincere  in  their  claim  that 
the  taxation  which  was  now  imposed  upon  them  for  the  first  time 
by  the  English  parliament  was  tyranny.  The  English  parliament 
and  ministry,  on  the  other  hand,  were  quite  as  sincere  as  the  col- 
onists when  they  claimed  the  right  of  taxing  and  making  laws 
for  Englishmen  wherever  they  might  be.  The  English  at  home 
and  the  colonists  in  America  simply  held  different  views  as  to  the 
meaning  of  this  point  of  the  English  constitution. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  state  of  the  law,  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  colonists  were  angered  by  the  new  taxation,  the  harsh 
restrictions  on  their  commerce,  and  the  increased  duties  on  sugar, 
molasses,  and  other  necessary  articles.  To  show  their  opposition 
to  these  they  not  only  mobbed  the  stamp  distributors  but  also 
adopted  non-importation  agreements,  pledging  themselves  not  to 
buy  or  use  any  goods  imported  from  England  till  the  obnoxious 
laws  were  repealed. 

532.  The  Declaration  of  Independence.  — In  1766,  after  a  year 
of  disorder,  the  English  ministry,  realizing  that  the  Americans 
were  being  roused  to  anger  and  that  almost  no  revenue  was 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       589 

coming  in,  asked  parliament  to  repeal  the  Stamp  Act,  which  was 
done.  Parliament  at  the  same  time,  to  satisfy  its  pride,  passed  a 
resolution  declaring  that  it  had  a  right,  if  it  saw  fit,  to  pass  laws 
for  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever.  Nevertheless  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act  showed  that  parliament  and  the  ministers  did 
not  intend  in  the  future  to  pass  such  laws  unless  they  were  satis- 
factory to  the  Americans.  The  colonists  met  their  action  half- 
way. There .  was  universal  rejoicing  and  they  again  seemed 
perfectly  loyal. 

But  this  satisfaction  lasted  for  a  short  time  only.  King  George 
had  been  bitterly  hostile  to  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  He  was 
deeply  offended  with  the  ministers  who  had  carried  the  repeal, 
even  though  it  had  won  back  the  Americans  to  their  allegiance. 
He  thought  the  colonists  ought  to  be  punished  for  their  disorders 
and  ruled  with  a  heavy  hand.  He  used  all  his  royal  influence 
to  induce  the  ministers  and  parliament  to  take  a  more  high- 
handed policy  towards  them.  The  next  year  his  wish  was  carried 
out.  What  were  called  the  "Townshend  Acts"  were  passed,  one 
of  which  placed  a  tax  on  various  articles  imported  into  the  Amer- 
ican colonies,  including  twopence  a  pound  on  tea.  The  revenue 
from  the  tax  on  tea  was  to  be  used  to  pay  government  officials  in 
America.  When  the  news  of  this  tax  came  there  was  a  still  more 
serious  outbreak  of  resistance  in  America.  From  this  time  for- 
ward hostility  between  the  people  of  the  thirteen  colonies  and 
the  mother  country  increased  steadily. 

In  1767  the  legislatures  of  the  colonies  were  forbidden  by  the 
government  to  pass  resolutions  in  opposition  to  the  laws  passed  by 
parliament,  and  several  of  them  were  dissolved  by  the  royal  gov- 
ernors ;  in  1768  English  troops  were  sent  to  Boston  ;  in  1769  colo- 
nists charged  with  treason  were  ordered  to  be  brought  home  for 
trial;  in  1770  there  was  a  riot  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  in  which 
the  soldiers  fired  upon  the  mob  and  five  or  six  persons  were  killed. 
In  1774  the  five  "  Intolerable  Acts"  were  passed  by  parliament 
closing  up  the  harbor  of  Boston,  putting  it  under  military  control, 


590  A   SHORT   HISTORY    OF   ENGLAND 

taking  self-government  away  from  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  and 
in  other  ways  laying  a  heavy  disciplinary  hand  on  the  Americans. 

The  colonists,  on  the  other  hand,  renewed  their  resolutions  of 
non-importation  of  English  goods,  seized  the  tea  on  the  vessels 
that  brought  it  over  and  threw  it  into  the  water,  passed  resolu- 
tions of  protest,  rang  muffled  bells,  and  drilled  their  militia  troops. 
Finally,  in  1774,  a  Congress  of  delegates  from  all  the  thirteen  col- 
onies met  in  Philadelphia,  and  determined  to  make  armed  resist- 
ance to  what  they  felt  to  be  the  tyranny  of  England. 

The  people  rose  in  arms  in  many  colonies.  The  first  blood  of 
a  long  contest  was  shed  at  Lexington  in  April,  1775.  Fighting 
followed  at  several  points,  and  on  July  4,  1776,  the  contest  was 
made  an  irreconcilable  one  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

At  several  points  during  the  growing  bitterness  of  the  last  ten 
years  a  few  concessions  on  the  part  of  the  mother  country  would 
have  allayed  the  excitement  of  the  Americans,  perhaps  obviated 
the  war,  and  certainly  postponed  or  prevented  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  The  feelings  of  the  great  body  of  the  people 
were  still  strongly  attached  to  the  home  land  of  their  race ;  the 
determination  to  resist  by  arms,  the  idea  of  total  separation  from 
England,  and  the  interest  in  the  principles  of  republican  govern- 
ment were  in  the  minds  of  most  of  the  colonists  the  growth  of 
a  very  short  period.  This  is  shown  by  the  series  of  petitions 
sent  by  them  to  the  king,  and  by  the  long  hesitation  in  Congress 
before  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  finally  made. 

It  was  the  writings  and  the  speeches  of  a  comparatively  small 
:  group  of  men,  like  Adams,  Franklin,  and  Paine,  falling  on  the 
favorable  soil  of  a  race  of  people  who  had  been  long  used  to 
self-government  in  their  colonial  assemblies,  and  who  were  now 
angered  by  the  oppressive  interference  of  the  British  government, 
which  transformed  the  colonists  from  good  subjects  of  a  distant 
monarchy  into  rebels  and  republicans.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
greatest  influence  opposed  to  concessions  to  the  colonists  was 
that  of  the  king.  The  ministers  who  favored  a  more  compliant 


AMERICAN  AND    FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       591 

policy  either  resigned  or,  as  Lord  North  did,  yielded  against 
their  better  judgment  to  the  wishes  of  the  king.  The  party  of  the 
king's  friends  in  parliament  was  always  a  solid  body  of  supporters 
of  measures  intended  to  humble  the  colonists.  Although  the 
majority  in  parliament  enthusiastically  favored  the  policy  of  inter- 
ference in  America,  that  majority  took  its  cue  from  a  few  of  the 
leaders  and  but  poorly  represented  the  feelings  of  the  great  body 
of  the  people  of  England.  If  there  had  been  any  way  of  finding 
the  real  views  of  the  people,  they  would  quite  probably  have  proved 
far  more  conciliatory  to  the  colonists  than  those  of  the  king  and 
his  party. 

533.  Pitt,  Burke,  and  Fox.  — America  was,  however,  not  with- 
out powerful  friends  in  parliament.  Pitt,  who  was  now  an  old 
man  and  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords,  having  been  made 
earl  of  Chatham,  used  his  remaining  influence  to  obtain  the 
repeal  of  the  stamp  tax,  and  favored  conciliation  at  every  oppor- 
tunity afterwards.  Two  younger  men  now  entering  upon  great 
careers  also  took  the  side  of  the  colonists,  though  they  were  not 
influential  enough  to  change  the  main  course  of  events.  These 
were  Edmund  Burke  and  Charles  James  Fox.  Burke  was  the  son 
of  an  Irish  lawyer  and  early  became  known  for  his  great  learning, 
his  philosophic  mind,  his  vigorous  writing,  and  his  thoughtful  and 
eloquent  speeches.  He  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  the  influence  of  one  of  the  great  Whig  leaders  and  soon 
became  one  of  the  most  prominent  opponents  of  Lord  North  and 
his  policy  and  a  steady  though  moderate  friend  of  the  Americans. 

Fox  was  a  man  of  very  different  origin,  character,  and  gifts, 
though  he  formed  a  friendship  with  Burke  which  lasted  for  many 
years,  and  they  were  close  allies  in  parliament.  Fox  was  the 
second  son  of  Lord  Holland,  a  prominent  member  of  the  ministry 
at  various  times  and  a  very  wealthy  man.  The  younger  Fox  was 
a  spendthrift,  and  lived  the  wild,  reckless  life  so  common  among 
young  men  of  the  English  aristocracy  at  that  time.  He  gambled 
every  night,  wasted  his  father's  fortune,  and  borrowed  from  his 


592  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

friends  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  At  the  same  time  his  affections 
were  so  strong,  his  nature  so  lovable,  his  gifts  of  eloquence  and 
clearness  of  thought  so  great,  that  his  friends  and  even  his  oppo- 
nents bore  with  all  his  excesses  and  valued  him  as  one  of  Eng- 
land's greatest  statesmen. 

534.  The  American  War.  —  But  neither  the  eloquence  of 
Chatham,  the  philosophy  of  Burke,  nor  the  generous  sympathy 
of  Fox  had  much  influence  on  the  course  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution. The  fighting  spirit  of  the  English  people  rose  with  the 
continuance  of  the  war,  parliament  favored  its  prosecution,  and 
the  king  was  always  ready  to  press  his  policy  of  complete  coercion 
of  the  Americans  on  Lord  North  when  he  wavered.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  distance  of  America  from  England,  the  immense 
extent  of  its  territory,  and  the  inadequacy  of  English  military 
equipment  fought  for  the  colonists. 

Congress  placed  at  the  head  of  the  army  George  Washington, 
whose  personal  dignity,  fine  character,  simple-minded  devotion  to 
his  country,  and  military  abilities  proved  to  be  the  main  factor  in 
the  ultimate  success  of  the  Americans.  Most  of  the  pitched 
battles  went  in  favor  of  the  English,  and  Boston,  New  York,  and 
Philadelphia,  the  three  largest  cities,  were  held  by  them  for  a 
longer  or  shorter  time.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Americans  gained 
some  notable  successes.  In  1777  General  Burgoyne,  who  was 
marching  southward  from  Canada,  was  surrounded  and  forced 
to  surrender  with  his  army.  This  victory  caused  France,  where 
there  was  some  enthusiastic  sympathy  for  the  colonists  and  much 
more  desire  for  revenge  upon  England,  to  make  an  alliance  with 
the  Americans. 

In  1779  Spain  also  declared  war  upon  England,  and  in  1780 
Holland  likewise  was  drawn  into  the  contest.  The  British  gov- 
ernment, notwithstanding  its  military  successes,  had  not  shown 
itself  capable  of  putting  down  the  rebellion  in  America.  Much 
less  was  it  able  to  defeat  a  combination  between  the  colonists  and 
the  powers  of  Europe.  Therefore  when  the  news  of  the  surrender 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       593 

of  Lord  Cornwallis  at  York  town  arrived  in  November,  1781,  the 
Whigs  in  parliament  were  able  to  carry  a  motion  for  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  war  in  America.  Soon  afterwards  Lord  North 
was  at  last  allowed  by  the  king  to  resign  office.  His  successor 
made  peace  in  1783,  acknowledging  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  of  America  with  boundaries  extending  westward  to 
the  Mississippi,  bounded  on  the  north  by  Canada,  and  on  the 
south  by  the  province  of  Florida,  which  was  now  returned  to  Spain. 
War  with  France,  Spain,  and  Holland  was  also  brought  to  a  close 
and  general  treaties  were  signed  at  Paris  in  1783. 

535.  Home  Rule  in  Ireland.  —  The  acknowledgment  of  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  was  accompanied  by  similar 
if  less  thoroughgoing  concessions  to  Ireland.  Ireland,  like  the 
American  colonies,  had  been  governed  as  best  suited  the  interests 
of  England,  not  her  own,  and  as  in  America  this  had  given  rise 
to  a  spirit  of  hostility.  This  hostility  was  shared  even  by  those 
whose  ancestors  had  come  from  England,  who  were  Protestants, 
and  who  were  themselves  oppressors  of  the  native  Catholic  pop- 
ulation. It  is  true  that  the  Protestant  part  of  the  population  of 
Ireland  was  represented,  though  very  irregularly,  in  an  Irish  par- 
liament which  sat  at  Dublin.  But  the  powers  of  this  parliament 
were  narrowly  limited.  An  old  act,  known  as  "  Poynings's  Law," 
passed  by  the  Irish  parliament  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII,  required 
that  all  laws  before  being  proposed  in  that  body  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  king  and  his  council  in  England  and  approved  by 
them.  Another  statute  passed  by  the  British  parliament  in  the 
time  of  George  I  declared  that  that  body  could  pass  laws  for 
Ireland  as  well  as  for  England  and  Scotland.  Under  these  con- 
ditions it  had  been  found  impossible  for  Ireland  to  legislate  for 
her  own  interests,  and  she  had  been  subjected  to  much  that  was 
inconvenient  and  injurious.  In  addition  to  the  unhappy  penal 
code  under  which  the  great  mass  of  her  lower  Catholic  population 
lived,  she  was  also  forbidden  to  export  many  of  her  products  to 
England,  Scotland,  the  colonies,  or  foreign  countries. 


594  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

An  old  proverb  says  that  "  England's  necessity  is  Ireland's 
opportunity."  It  proved  to  be  so  in  this  case.  When  France 
and  Spain  allied  themselves  with  the  American  colonies  Ireland 
was  much  exposed  to  invasion.  It  was  impossible  for  the  English 
fleet  and  armies  to  protect  the  whole  coast  of  Ireland,  Scotland, 
and  England  at  a  time  when  the  troops  were  all  needed  in  America 
and  the  vessels  on  the  coast  of  America,  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
in  the  Mediterranean.  Therefore  volunteer  troops  were  raised  in 
Ireland  to  the  number  of  fifty  thousand  men,  and  although  they 
were  all  nominally  Protestants  and  all  professedly  loyal,  yet 
their  existence  gave  the  Irish  people  and  the  Irish  parliament  an 
unwonted  boldness.  They  had  now  the  power  to  enforce  their 
demands. 

The  spokesman  of  these  demands  was  Henry  Grattan,  the 
greatest  lawyer  and  orator  in  the  Irish  parliament.  In  1779 
such  strong  resolutions  were  carried  through  that  body  in  favor 
of  freedom  of  trade  with  England  that  the  next  year  laws  were 
passed  in  the  English  parliament  putting  the  two  countries  on  an 
equality  in  commercial  matters  and  allowing  Ireland  free  export 
of  its  principal  commodities.  Then  began  an  agitation  for  the 
complete  legislative  freedom  of  the  Irish  parliament.  It  was 
taken  up  with  great  enthusiasm  by  the  "Volunteers,"  and  depu- 
ties from  their  various  regiments  carried  resolutions  in  its  favor. 
In  1782  Grattan  brought  forward  a  declaration  in  favor  of  a  free 
parliament,  which  was  carried  unanimously  through  both  houses. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  English  ministry,  not  caring  to  face 
an  Irish  in  addition  to  an  American  revolution,  gave  way,  allowed 
Poynings's  Law  to  be  repealed  in  Ireland,  and  induced  the  English 
parliament  to  repeal  the  act  of  George  I. 

For  the  next  eighteen  years  Ireland  had  "  home  rule,"  that  is 
to  say,  her  legislature  could  pass  any  laws  which  seemed  best  for 
the  country.  The  executive  power  was,  however,  not  under  the 
control  of  parliament,  as  it  was  exercised  by  a  lord  lieutenant 
appointed  by  the  king  on  the  advice  of  the  British  ministry. 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       595 


536.  Close  of  Personal  Rule  of  George  III. — The  resignation 
of  Lord  North  in  1782,  the  complete  independence  granted  to 
America,  and  the  partial  independence  given  to  Ireland  not  only 
indicated  the  failure  of  a  coercive  policy,  but  also  marked  the 
close  of  the  active  interference  of  George  III  in  the  affairs  of 
government.     In  1780  a  resolution  was  carried  in  the  House  of 
Commons  to   the  effect  that  "the  influence  of  the  crown  has 
increased,  is  increasing,  and  ought  to  be  diminished."     The  king 
was  obliged  in  1782  and  1783  to  ac- 
cept  ministers  who  were  most  dis- 
tasteful to  him.     When,  however, 

these  ministers  failed  to  retain  their 
majority  and  found  it  necessary  to  re- 
sign, he  exercised  his  old  claim  to 
make  his  own  choice  of  a  minister. 
But  the  man  whom  he  selected  proved 
to  be  more  masterful  than  the  king 
had  expected,  and  George  III  never 
again  became  "  his  own  prime  minis- 
ter," as  he  had  been  called. 

The  resistance  of  America  and  the 
self-assertion  of  Ireland  had  therefore 
not  only  gained  the  ends  for  which 

those  countries  were  striving  but  had  also  saved  England  herself 
from  a  reintroduction  of  royal  absolutism. 

537.  William  Pitt  the  Younger.  —  The  new  prime  minister 
who  came  into  office  in  1783  was  William  Pitt,  the  second  son  of 
the  great  earl  of  Chatham.    The  elder  son,  who  had  inherited  his 
father's  title,  was  not  a  man  of  much  ability  or  political  impor- 
tance.   The  second  son  and  namesake  of  his  father,  however,  had 
been  trained  from  childhood  for  a  public  career,  and  he  devel- 
oped qualities  which  made  him  almost  if  not  quite  the  equal  of 
the  earl  of  Chatham.     "  He  is  not  a  chip  off  the  old  block,  he 
is  the  old  block  itself,"  was  Burke's  judgment  of  him  soon  after 


William  Pitt 


596  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

he  entered  parliament  as  a  young  man  of  twenty.  He  had  not 
the  fiery  and  impetuous  eloquence  of  his  father,  but  his  speeches 
were  always  clear,  vigorous,  and  graceful.  He  knew  what  he 
wanted  to  do,  and  yet  saw  clearly  what  could  or  could  not  be 
done  in  each  set  of  circumstances.  He  knew  how  to  manage 
men  and  was  willing  to  be  patient.  He  was  moderate,  even  cold. 
In  intellectual  abilities  he  was  therefore  quite  the  equal,  perhaps 
the  superior,  of  any  statesman  of  his  time,  although  in  strength  of 
feeling  he  was  inferior  both  to  many  of  them  and  to  his  father. 

Nevertheless  he  had  unbounded  confidence  in  himself,  and 
although  he  had  been  in  the  ministry  but  a  few  months,  was  only 
twenty-four  years  old,  and  represented  a  small  minority  in  par- 
liament, when  the  king  asked  him  to  take  charge  of  the  govern- 
ment in  1783  he  did  so  without  hesitation.  He  had  a  hard 
struggle  to  keep  his  position.  The  Whigs  were  still  in  a  majority 
in  parliament  and  protested  against  the  appointment  of  a  minister 
who  did  not  represent  their  party.  For  Pitt,  though  he  called 
himself  a  Whig,  like  his  father,  and  in  American  affairs  and  some 
other  matters  had  taken  the  same  ground  with  Burke,  Fox,  and 
other  influential  Whigs,  had  yet  put  himself  on  Tory  ground  by 
accepting  a  personal  appointment  as  minister  from  the  king.  He 
was  really  throwing  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  old  leaders  and 
trying  to  form  a  new  Tory  party. 

538.  The  New  Tory  Party.  —  In  this  he  finally  succeeded. 
During  his  first  year  of  office  he  declined  time  after  time  to 
resign  when  called  upon  to  do  so  or  when  his  measures  were 
defeated.  He  believed  that  the  people  of  the  country  were  tired 
of  the  old  leaders  and  of  their  selfish  and  unpatriotic  combina- 
tions. Insufficient  as  were  the  means  then  in  existence  for  voicing 
the  wishes  of  the  people,  he  believed  that  they  would  uphold  a 
new  cabinet  freed  from  the  trammels  of  the  old  leaders  as  soon 
as  an  opportunity  was  given  to  express  their  views. 

He  simply  waited,  therefore,  for  a  good  occasion  to  ask  the 
king  to  dissolve  parliament,  in  the  meanwhile  taking  a  moderate 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       597 


tone  on  all  questions  that  came  up,  boldly  refusing  to  resign,  and 
encouraging  Fox  and  his  other  opponents  to  an  ever-increasing 
violence  of  expression.  His  judgment  of  the  popular  feeling  was 
correct.  The  people  admired  his  courage,  he  inherited  some  of 
the  popularity  of  his  father,  and  in  a  few  months  the  tide  began 
to  turn  in  his  favor.  Parliament  was  therefore  dissolved  in  1 7  84 
and  the  new  elections  brought  in  a  good  majority  of  supporters 
of  the  new  ministry.  Pitt  remained  prime  minister  for  almost 
twenty  years,  and  the  Tory  party 
as  he  reorganized  it  and  as  it  was 
strengthened  by  succeeding  events, 
remained  in  almost  unbroken  con- 
trol for  more  than  forty  years.  This 
was  a  period  nearly  as  long  as  the 
Whig  control  during  the  eighteenth 
century,  which  had  lasted  from  Wai- 
pole's  advent  in  1 7  2 1  to  Lord  North's 
ministry  of  1770,  and  it  was  even 
more  full  of  great  events. 

539.  Defects  of  the  Representa- 
tion. —  Pitt  desired,  like  his  father, 
that  the  policy  of  his  government 
should  be  based  on  the  support  of 
the  people  at  large,  not  on  that  of 
parliament  only.  Many  recent  occurrences  had  served  to  show 
how  wide  was  the  chasm  between  parliament  and  the  great  body 
of  the  people.  This  was  due  to  the  bad  system  of  representation. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  the  original  plan  had  been  to  summon 
to  parliament  two  members  from  each  county  and  two  from  each 
considerable  town.  The  list  of  represented  towns  had  been  some- 
what changed  since  the  thirteenth  century,  but  not  at  all  since 
the  sixteenth.  In  the  meantime  many  of  these  towns  had  from 
one  cause  or  another  lost  much  or  all  of  their  population.  A  town 
which  in  1295  had  had  two  or  three  thousand  inhabitants  had 


Gatton  "Town  Hall  ":  the  Site 
of  a  Decayed  Borough 


598  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

from  one  cause  or  another  ceased  to  flourish,  and  its  people  had 
drifted  off  to  more  active  towns,  till  it  had  sunk  to  a  mere  county 
village,  or  in  some  cases  had  become  simply  farming  ground  or 
some  country  gentleman's  park.  As  the  population  of  a  town 
decayed,  however,  it  still  retained  its  right  to  send  members  to  par- 
liament, and  the  choice  of  these  gradually  came  into  the  control  of 
the  landowner  who  possessed  the  soil  on  which  the  town  was  built 
or  who  had  the  greatest  influence  in  that  part  of  the  country. 

Thus  came  into  existence  what  were  known  as  "  pocket  bor- 
oughs," l  because  their  owners  could  put  their  hands  in  their  poc- 
kets and  take  out  the  appointment  of  members  of  parliament  to 
represent  them.  Several  noblemen  had  each  the  appointment 
of  half  a  dozen  or  more  members  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Many  landowners  had  practical  control  of  at  least  one  decayed 
borough  with  its  representation.  The  crown  also  had  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  considerable  number,  since  in  some  of  the  small  repre- 
sented towns  so  many  of  the  people  were  in  the  employ  of  the 
government,  or  of  contractors  for  the  government,  or  otherwise 
under  government  influence,  that  the  king  or  his  ministers  could 
always  say  who  should  be  elected.  In  these  ways  more  than 
three  hundred  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  practi- 
cally appointed  by  a  handful  of  influential  nobles  and  gentry  or 
by  the  ministers  who  were  in  office  at  the  time  of  an  election. 
A  combination  among  these  "borough  owners,"  and  above  all  an 
agreement  between  a  number  of  them  and  the  ministers,  could 
almost  always  control  a  majority  in  parliament,  quite  apart  from 
the  wishes  or  opinions  of  the  members  elected  by  more  inde- 
pendent constituencies. 

540.  Unrepresented  Towns  and  Classes.  — On  the  other  hand, 
many  large  towns  and  cities  had  grown  up  which  had  no  especial 

1  They  were  also  called  "nomination  boroughs,"  because  their  repre- 
sentatives in  parliament  were  named  or  nominated  by  a  landlord ;  "  close 
boroughs,"  because  the  group  of  voters  was  a  restricted  body  ;  and  "  rotten 
boroughs,"  because  the  population  was  decayed. 


AMERICAN  AND    FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       599 

representatives  in  parliament,  their  inhabitants  voting,  when  quali- 
fied, simply  for  the  two  representatives  of  the  whole  shire  in  which 
the  town  lay.  This  had  been  especially  true  since  the  beginning 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution,  when  large  manufacturing  towns  were 
growing  up  in  a  part  of  the  country  which  had  previously  but 
a  sparse  population.  In  these  a  numerous,  active,  and  wealthy 
population  was  almost  without  representation  in  parliament.  The 
property  qualification  for  voting  and  other  restrictions  resulted  in 
the  exclusion  from  the  franchise  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes 
of  the  population,  even  of  those  towns  and  counties  which  did 
have  representatives  in  parliament.  In  1768,  when  the  popula- 
tion of  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales  was  about  8,000,000,  or 
probably  1,600,000  grown  men,  there  were  only  some  160,000 
voters.  In  other  words,  out  of  every  ten  grown  men  in  the  coun- 
try one  had  a  vote,  the  other  nine  had  none. 

As  a  result  of  these  inequalities  parliament  but  poorly  repre- 
sented the  nation,  and  it  was  possible  for  the  ministers  and  the 
majority  in  parliament  to  have  one  set  of  wishes,  and  the  great  body 
of  the  people  to  have  quite  another.  The  recognition  that  they 
had  no  real  control  over  the  policy  of  the  government  made  the 
people  far  more  disorderly  and  reckless  than  they  would  have 
been  otherwise,  as  violence  was  almost  the  only  way  in  which 
they  could  exercise  any  influence. 

541 .  The  Lord  George  Gordon  Riots.  —  This  had  been  shown 
in  the  Wilkes  affair,  in  a  great  many  mob  insults  to  Bute,  North, 
and  other  ministers,  and  even  to  the  king  himself.  It  was  now 
still  further  shown  by  the  "  Lord  George  Gordon  Riots  "  in  1780. 

Views  of  religious  toleration  had  been  growing  during  the  more 
enlightened  century  which  had  just  passed  and  among  the  more 
enlightened  classes  which  were  represented  in  parliament.  The 
old  dread  of  the  Roman  Catholics  had  passed  away  very  largely 
since  the  country  had  settled  down  under  its  new  Protestant 
dynasty  and  since  other  interests  had  so  largely  taken  the  place  of 
the  old  religious  contests.  As  a  result  of  this  feeling  parliament 


6oo 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


in  1778  made  a  beginning  of  the  abolition  of  the  old  drastic  laws 
against  the  Roman  Catholics. 

In  the  country  at  large,  however,  feeling  was  not  nearly  so  lib- 
eral, and  many  took  alarm  at  the  changes.  Parliament  was  not 
trusted,  as  it  was  not  under  the  control  of  the  community,  and 
an  unreasoning  fear  that  more  far-reaching  changes  were  to  be 
introduced  spread  abroad.  Protestant  associations  were  formed 
and  began  an  agitation  for  the  repeal  of  the  late  laws.  The  head 
of  this  agitation  was  a  certain  Lord  George  Gordon,  a  young  man 
of  enthusiasm  but  not  of  an  entirely  sound  mind.  In  1780  he 


An  Election  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (drawn  by  Hogarth) 

sent  out  an  appeal  for  a  body  of  twenty  thousand  Protestants  to 
meet  him  in  St.  George's  Fields,  London,  and  go  with  him  to  the 
parliament  house  to  present  a  special  petition.  A  much  larger 
number  gathered,  rioting  broke  out,  the  entrances  to  the  house  of 
parliament  were  invaded  and  the  members  mobbed,  the  disorder 
spread  through  London,  and  for  five  days  the  city  was  in  the 
hands  of  an  uncontrollable  mob.  Roman  Catholic  chapels  were 
sacked  and  burned,  and  houses  and  stores  of  Roman  Catholic 
tradesmen  were  destroyed,  while  those  of  members  of  parliament 


AMERICAN  AND   FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       6oi 

who  had  advocated  legislation  in  favor  of  the  Catholics  were  plun- 
dered and  burned,  and  many  persons  killed.  Finally  the  king,  who 
was  never  lacking  in  courage,  called  together  his  council  and  urged 
upon  them  the  use  of  military  force  to  put  down  the  riots.  The 
troops  were  therefore  ordered  to  take  vigorous  measures,  and  at 
the  cost  of  some  five  hundred  persons  killed  and  wounded  order 
was  restored.  A  number  of  rioters  were  executed  and  officials 
punished,  and  parliament  adhered  to  its  former  action. 

542.  The  Reform  of  Parliament Old  abuses  of  many  kinds 

survived  because  there  was  so  little  connection  between  parlia- 
ment and  the  people.  Every  effort  made  by  reformers  to  put  an 
end  to  bribery,  to  lessen  the  number  of  sinecure  offices,  to  exclude 
men  from  parliament  who  were  under  the  control  of  government, 
or  in  other  ways  to  introduce  purity  and  justice  was  met  by  resist- 
ance due  to  the  existence  of  the  close-borough  system.  The  united 
devotion  and  interest  of  the  country  could  scarcely  ever  be  ob- 
tained for  any  measure  because  the  country  was  not  really  repre- 
sented in  its  legislature.  Many  leaders  therefore  had  long  looked 
to  a  change  in  this  system  as  a  necessary  step  to  be  taken  before 
any  further  reforms  could  be  accomplished.  Any  plan  of  this  kind 
intended  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  representation  came  to 
be  known  as  "reform  of  parliament." 

The  earl  of  Chatham  had  announced  in  his  last  ministry  that 
he  intended  to  introduce  a  measure  for  parliamentary  reform,  but 
his  failure  in  health  and  his  resignation  led  to  the  plan  being 
dropped  at  that  time.  After  the  close  of  the  American  war 
popular  meetings  were  held  and  organizations  formed  to  demand 
various  reforms,  among  which  that  of  parliament  was  prominent ; 
but  nothing  was  done.  Soon  after  the  younger  Pitt  entered  the 
House  of  Commons  he  brought  in  a  bill  to  take  away  represen- 
tation from  a  number  of  the  close  boroughs  and  to  give  their 
representatives  to  the  most  populous  counties,  where  the  right  of 
voting  was  more  general.  This  bill  was  defeated,  though  it  was 
strenuously  supported  by  Fox. 


602  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Now  that  Pitt  was  prime  minister  it  might  be  expected  that  a 
reform  bill  would  be  carried,  and  in  1 7  84  he  introduced  a  measure 
by  which  he  proposed  to  abolish  many  of  the  nomination  bor- 
oughs, paying  the  owners  for  their  loss.  It  was  defeated  and  Pitt 
gave  up  the  attempt  to  force  through  parliament  a  measure  which 
was  so  much  opposed  to  the  interests  of  a  great  majority  of  its 
members.  It  still  remained,  however,  a  subject  of  agitation  in 
the  country  and  was  proposed  again  from  time  to  time  even  in  par- 
liament itself.  In  1792  along  petition  was  presented  showing 
that  a  decided  majority  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons owed  their  election  to  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
four  influential  men.  Pitt  himself  opposed  these  later  attempts 
to  bring  about  reform,  notwithstanding  his  early  efforts.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  a  great  occurrence  had  by  this  time  taken  place 
in  Europe  which  led  Pitt  and  the  great  body  of  the  nobility  and 
upper  classes  in  England  to  oppose  everything  which  threatened 
to  give  greater  power  to  the  lower  classes. 

543.  The  French  Revolution. — This  occurrence  was  the  out- 
break of  the  French  Revolution.  For  a  long  time  the  necessity 
for  extensive  reforms  had  been  even  more  evident  in  France  than 
in  England.  In  1789  a  National  Assembly  of  the  representatives 
of  the  French  people  was  called  by  the  king  of  France  to  devise 
means  of  overcoming  the  financial  difficulties  of  the  government. 
The  Assembly  gave  but  slight  attention  to  financial  matters  but 
proceeded  within  the  years  from  1789  to  1791  to  introduce  the 
most  radical  reforms  into  every  department  of  French  society  and 
government.  The  king  was  deprived  of  most  of  his  former  powers 
and  a  representative  system  of  government  was  established.  A 
"  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man  "  was  issued  which  laid  down 
the  principles  on  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Assembly,  govern- 
ment and  society  should  be  constructed.  These  principles  were 
similar  to  those  expressed  in  the  American  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  if  generally  accepted  would  have  transformed  the 
existing  system  of  every  country  of  Europe. 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       603 

An  effort  was  made  to  introduce  social  along  with  political 
equality.  France  was  divided  into  "departments"  with  new 
boundaries,  the  church  reorganized,  aristocracy  abolished,  and 
many  institutions  which  had  existed  for  long  centuries  were  super- 
seded by  new  arrangements  based  on  universal  equality.  This 
transformation  was  not  accomplished  without  much  violence. 
There  were  many  riots  in  the  streets  of  Paris  and  throughout  the 
country.  The  Bastille,  a  royal  fortress  in  the  heart  of  Paris,  was 
captured  by  the  mob  on  July  14,  1789.  There  was  much  con- 
fiscation of  property  belonging  to  the  .nobles  and  the  church. 
Many  of  the  upper  classes  fled  from  the  country  and  representa- 
tives of  the  middle  and  the  lower  classes  came  into  control. 

544.  English  Opinion  on  the  Revolution.  —  These  changes  in  a 
neighboring  and  rival  nation  were  looked  upon  with  various  feel- 
ings in  England.  A  great  number  of  the  people,  including  some 
such  prominent  men  as  Fox,  welcomed  the  change  and  believed 
that  it  would  result  in  the  greater  happiness  and  welfare  of  the 
French  people  and  of  the  human  race. 

Following  the  example  of  France  they  turned  their  attention 
to  affairs  at  home  and  began  an  agitation  for  a  reform  of  parlia- 
ment, for  a  milder  libel  law,  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade, 
and  for  the  removal  of  many  old  abuses  in  the  government  and 
laws.  They  revived  old  Whig  associations,  the  "  Constitutional 
Society"  and  the  "Revolutionary  Society,"  and  these  adopted  as 
their  principles  the  advocacy  of  universal  suffrage,  more  frequent 
elections  for  parliament,  and  other  measures  which  would  have 
put  the  control  of  government  more  completely  in  the  hands  of 
the  masses  of  the  people.  From  1789  to  1792  they  sent  repeated 
letters  of  congratulation  to  the  French  Assembly.  Still  other 
societies  were  soon  formed,  such  as  the  "  Friends  of  the  People," 
many  of  whose  members  believed  in  a  republic  and  wished  to 
see  one  established  in  England. 

While  many  men  in  England  were  thus  encouraging  and  imitat- 
ing the  French  Revolution,  many  others  believed  that  the  personal 


604  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

outrages  and  injustice  to  individuals  and  to  the  upper  classes  in 
France  would  lead  to  mere  anarchy  without  the  possibility  of  orderly 
reform.  They  thought  that  the  Revolution  was  a  reckless  and 
injurious  overthrow  of  established  order  that  was  sure  to  go  from 
bad  to  worse  in  France  and  to  give  an  evil  example  to  the  people 
of  other  countries. 

Of  the  latter  views  Burke  made  himself  the  special  representa- 
tive. In  1790  he  issued  a  pamphlet  called  Reflections  on  the 
French  Revolution,  in  which  with  great  philosophic  insight  he 
called  attention  to  the  weak  points  in  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment and  prophesied  the  more  extreme  lengths  to  which  it  would 
go.  This  book  not  only  had  a  great  influence  but  it  also  served 
as  a  statement  of  principles  in  which  many  of  the  old  Whig  party 
believed.  With  Burke  they  soon  separated  themselves  from  the 
rest  of  their  party,  who  were  led  by  Fox,  and  eventually  joined 
the  Tories,  who  supported  Pitt.  This  addition  of  strength  made 
that  minister  and  his  party  all  powerful. 

545.  War  between  England  and  France.  —  For  a  while  Pitt 
occupied  a  middle  point  between  those  who  admired  and  those 
who  opposed  the  French  Revolution,  and  as  prime  minister  fol- 
lowed a  policy  of  carefully  keeping  England  from  taking  any 
part  in  the  internal  troubles  of  France.  He  was  anxious  for 
unbroken  peace,  for  reform  measures  in  England,  and  for  an 
increase  of  commercial  exchanges  with  other  countries.  He 
hoped,  moreover,  that  the  excitement  in  France  would  diminish 
and  that  that  country  would  gradually  settle  down  into  a  constitu- 
tional monarchy  like  England  herself.  He  had  therefore  every 
reason  to  avoid  any  interference  with  French  affairs. 

This  policy,  however,  gradually  became  impossible.  In  1791 
and  1792  there  were  more  massacres  in  France,  the  king  was 
dethroned,  and  finally  a  republic  set  up.  A  new  Assembly  was 
called,  which  was  under  the  influence  of  radical  Parisian  clubs.  A 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  came  into  power,  which  carried  out 
ruthless  executions  of  all  those  who  were  suspected  of  disloyalty 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       605 

to  the  new  republic.  War  broke  out  between  France  on  one  side 
and  Austria  and  Prussia  on  the  other.  France  was  successful  and 
began  not  only  a  conquest  of  territories  on  her  border  but  also  an 
extension  of  the  principles  of  the  revolution  wherever  her  arms 
or  her  influence  extended.  These  principles  and  their  application 
would  in  time  surely  bring  France  and  England  into  conflict,  just 
as  they  had  already  brought  about  war  between  France,  Austria, 
and  Prussia.  Other  causes  hastened  the  outbreak.  In  1793,  when 
France  invaded  the  Austrian  Netherlands  and  sent  her  own  king 
to  execution,  Pitt  ordered  the  French  minister  to  leave  England, 
and  France  immediately  declared  war.  After  this  time  war  between 
England  and  France  continued  without  cessation  for  nine  years, 
the  Treaty  of  Amiens  being  signed  in  1802. 

546.  Close  of  Revolutionary  Agitation  in  England. — One  of 
the  earliest  results  of  the  war  was  the  silencing  of  the  revolution- 
ary societies  in  England.  They  had  become  more  and  more 
outspoken  and  disorderly  in  their  agitation.  Processions  passed 
through  the  streets  of  London  carrying  banners  inscribed  "Liberty," 
"  Equality,"  and  "No  King."  When  the  war  with  France  broke 
out  Pitt  and  his  party  came  to  the  conclusion  that  this  was  danger- 
ously close  to  a  revolution,  and  determined  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
agitation  if  it  were  in  any  way  possible.  Proclamations  were  there- 
fore issued,  the  militia  was  called  out,  two  new  treason  acts  were 
passed,  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  suspended,  and  a  number  of 
leaders  of  the  agitation  in  England  and  Scotland  were  prosecuted 
for  sedition  and  sentenced  to  various  periods  of  transportation  to 
the  convict  colonies.  The  next  year,  when  the  Constitutional  and 
the  Corresponding  Societies  called  a  convention  in  London  whose 
influence  over  parliament  they  dreamed  might  be  similar  to  that  of 
the  Jacobin  Club  over  the  National  Assembly  in  Paris,  the  officers 
of  those  societies  were  prosecuted  by  the  government  for  treason. 
The  juries  could  not  be  induced  to  convict  them  of  such  a  high 
crime  and  they  were  acquitted.1  Nevertheless  the  government 
1  These  agitators  are  often  called  the  "  English  Jacobins." 


606  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

utilized  the  powers  given  to  it  by  the  new  sedition  laws  to  dissolve 
some  of  the  societies  and  to  prevent  others  from  holding  meetings. 
Little  by  little  the  agitation  was  suppressed.  Popular  sym- 
pathy turned  to  the  side  of  the  government.  The  passion  of 
hostility  to  France  grew  with  the  continuation  of  the  war.  It 
was  generally  felt  that  active  approval  and  praise  for  France 
should  not  be  openly  expressed  when  the  two  countries  were  at 
war.  By  the  year  1795  it  may  be  said  that  all  active  reform 
agitation  had  come  to  an  end.  Scarcely  anything  which  savored 
of  reform  of  any  kind  was  carried  for  the  next  twenty  years. 

547.  The  Irish  Revolution  and  the  Union. — In  Ireland,  with 
its  vast  unrepresented  and  unhappy  population  and  its  various 
classes  with  their  different  interests,  the  French  Revolution 
exerted  even  more  influence  than  in  England.  One  of  its  effects 
was  to  bring  into  existence  a  revolutionary 
society,  the  "  United  Irishmen,"  whose  plan 
was  to  obtain  the  help  of  France,  throw  off 
the  yoke  of  the  English  government,  and 
establish  a  republic  in  Ireland.  After  much 
plotting,  negotiation  with  France,  organiza- 
tion, and  drilling,  a  serious  insurrection  broke 
out  in  1798.  There  was  some  fighting  and 

Royal  Arms  from       terrible  atrocities  were  committed  both  by  the 
1801  to  1816  ,    ,         ,  ,      <.,      v     r  ,   .  ,  .  , 

rebels  and  by  the  English  troops,  which  soon 

put  down  the  rebellion.     Several  of  its  leaders  committed  suicide 
or  were  killed  in  resisting  arrest ;   the  others  were  hung. 

When  the  revolt  was  over  the  English  ministers  decided  that 
the  only  hope  for  peace  and  order  in  Ireland  was  to  unite  her  par- 
liament with  that  of  England  and  rule  the  two  countries  as  one. 
The  great  majority  of  the  Irish  ministers  was  at  first  strongly 
opposed  to  this  plan,  but  by  wholesale  bribery  and  promises  of 
peerages  a  majority  was  obtained  sufficient  to  carry  the  necessary 
bills.  There  was  no  opposition  in  the  British  parliament  and  the 
requisite  measures  were,  in  the  same  year,  1800,  carried  in  that 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       607 


body  also.  The  name  of  "The  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  "  was  adopted  for  the  two  nations.1  Thus  the  parlia- 
ment at  Dublin  disappeared,  and  that  which  met  at  Westminster 
in  1 80 1  became  known  as  the  first  " united"  or  "imperial"  parlia- 
ment. It  included  not  only  the  members  from  England,  Scotland, 
and  Wales,  but  also  one  hundred  members  from  Ireland  in  the  House 
of  Commons  and  twenty-eight  Irish  peers  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
548.  Bad  feeling  between  England  and  Ireland. — The  legisla- 
tive union  of  Ireland  with  Great  Britain  came  nearly  a  hundred 
years  later  than  that  of  Scotland  with  England  and  was  practically 
identical  with  it  in  principle  and  intention.  Many  circumstances 
connected  with  the  Irish  union,  however, 
were  different,  and  these  served  to  make 
it  a  heavy  burden  to  both  countries  and 
the  source  of  embittered  contests  which 
have  continued  to  the  present  time.  In 
the  first  place,  the  union  was  forced  upon 
the  Irish  legislature  and  the  Irish  people 
against  their  will.  The  bare  majority 

vote  in  its  favor  obtained  in  the  Dublin  parliament  by  bribery  and 
management  by  no  means  constituted  a  willing  acceptance  of  the 
union.  The  great  body  of  the  Irish  have  therefore  always  felt  that 
the  British  government  was  a  usurping  power,  governing  them  as 
a  tyrant,  not  as  a  voluntarily  chosen  ruler.  Secondly,  the  English 
have  always  looked  upon  the  Irish  with  a  certain  amount  of  con- 
tempt. In  discussing  in  the  united  parliament  matters  relating 
to  Ireland  the  ministry  early  formed  the  habit  of  neglecting  or  dis- 
regarding the  judgment  and  the  knowledge  of  the  representatives 
of  Ireland,  and  simply  overwhelmed  them  by  enormous  majorities 
made  up  of  English  and  Scotch  members.  As  a  result  legislation 
for  Ireland  for  almost  three  quarters  of  a  century  was  unwise  and 
unpopular  to  an  almost  incredible  degree. 

1  At  the  same  time  the  title  "  King  of  France  "  was  dropped  by  the  king 
and  the  fleur-de-lys  removed  from  the  coat  of  arms. 


Union  Jack  after  the  Union 
with  Ireland 


608  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Finally,  the  religious  incompatibility  of  the  two  nations  was 
intensified  rather  than  moderated  by  the  union.  Probably  seven 
eighths  of  the  Irish  people  were  Roman  Catholics  and  only  one 
eighth  Protestants.  Although  Catholics  could  vote  they  could 
not  hold  office  or  be  members  of  parliament.  They  were  not, 
therefore,  properly  represented,  being  restricted  in  their  choice  of 
members  of  parliament  to  persons  not  of  their  own  religious  faith. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  government  to  arouse  the  interest  or 
secure  the  loyalty  of  the  masses.  The  best  that  could  be  hoped  and 
the  most  that  was  ever  obtained  was  the  sullen  and  uninterested 
submission  of  the  Irish  people  to  what  they  felt  to  be  an  alien 
and  despotic  government.  Other  causes  combined  to  make  the 
history  of  Ireland  during  the  nineteenth  century  an  unhappy  one, 
but  the  most  fundamental  cause  has  been  that  she  has  not  been 
able  to  work  out  her  own  salvation  in  her  own  way. 

549.  Resignation  of  Pitt.  —  The  last  of  the  difficulties  men- 
tioned above  —  the  lack  of  religious  equality  between  the  two 
nations  —  was  no  part  of  the  plan  of  the  union  as  formed  by 
Pitt.  He  had  intended  and  indeed  promised  the  Irish  leaders  to 
obtain  a  repeal  of  the  law  excluding  Catholics  from  parliament, 
and  this  was  clearly  understood  to  be  one  of  the  terms  of  the 
agreement  by  which  the  union  was  carried.  Pitt  knew  that  he 
could  count  on  a  majority  in  parliament  to  support  him  in  this 
plan,  and  proceeded  to  the  preparation  of  a  bill  for  Catholic 
emancipation.  But  there  was  one  influence  of  which  he  had  not 
taken  proper  account.  This  was  the  resistance  of  the  king. 
Opponents  of  the  admission  of  Catholics,  even  some  members 
of  the  ministry,  went  to  the  king  privately  and  urged  him  to 
interpose  his  power,  even  to  the  extent  of  vetoing  such  a  bill. 
George  III  had  always  been  extremely  conscientious  in  religious 
matters  and  he  was  bigoted  in  his  opposition  to  the  Catholics. 
He  asked  Pitt,  therefore,  not  to  introduce  such  a  bill,  but  the 
prime  minister  declared  that  he  would  fulfill  his  promises  or 
resign. 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH    REVOLUTIONS       609 

The  king  still  persisted  in  his  opposition,  and  as  he  was  now 
becoming  an  old  man  and  more  than  once  had  had  attacks 
of  insanity,  and  as  opinion  in  the  ministry  and  parliament  was 
much  divided,  Pitt  preferred  to  resign  rather  than  carry  the  con- 
test farther.  The  project  of  giving  relief  to  the  Catholics  was 
given  up,  and  Pitt  after  being  prime  minister  seventeen  years 
resigned  his  office. 

550.  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade.  —  Various  ministries  followed, 
including  a  return  of  Pitt  to  power  in  1804  ;  but  he  died  in  little 
more  than  a  year,  when  a  ministry  of  all  parties  was  formed,  the 
most  influential  member  of  which  was  Fox.  He  also  died  in  1806, 
the  same  year  as  Pitt.  During  his  short  ministry,  however,  he  was 
instrumental  in  securing  the  adoption  of  one  great  reform.  This 
was  the  passage  of  the  law  by  which  English  vessels  were  pro- 
hibited from  taking  part  in  the  trade  in  slaves  between  Africa  and 
America.  This  was  an  old  if  somewhat  disreputable  branch  of 
commerce  in  which  English  merchants,  especially  those  of  the 
west  of  England,  had  won  much  wealth.  It  was  said  that  at  one 
time  sixty  thousand  negroes  were  yearly  taken  from  the  coast  of 
Africa  to  the  West  Indies  and  to  American  states  and  colonies. 

About  1783,  a  young  graduate  of  Cambridge,  named  Clark- 
son,  became  impressed  with  the  evils  of  this  trade  when  engaged 
in  preparing  material  for  an  essay  on  the  subject.  He  afterwards 
devoted  many  years  to  collecting  evidence  of  its  horrors.  He 
learned  and  published  the  fact  that  vessels  bound  from  Africa  to 
America  habitually  took  aboard  so  many  negroes  that  only  a  few 
cubic  feet  of  space  between  decks  was  allowed  for  each.  He 
described  the  plan  by  which  they  were  placed  so  close  as  almost 
to  touch  one  another,  chained  together  in  long  tiers  in  the  hold, 
with  so  little  space  above  them  that  they  were  not  able  to  stand 
or  even  sit  upright.  Large  numbers  died  in  the  stifling  air  of  the 
hold  as  the  vessel  sailed  through  the  tropical  seas,  many  others 
became  insane,  and  still  others  committed  suicide  by  springing 
overboard  when  they  were  taken  on  deck  for  exercise.  The 


6lO  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

terrible  inhumanity  connected  with  this  traffic  had  troubled  many 
men  of  benevolent  character  in  England ;  the  Quakers  had  peti- 
tioned parliament  against  it,  and  Wilberforce,  an  influential  man 
and  a  friend  of  Pitt,  had  made  himself  the  special  advocate  of  its 
abolition  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

Both  Pitt  and  Fox  had  become  interested  in  the  subject  and 
desirous  of  legislating  against  it,  and  from  1788  onwards,  at  various 
times,  measures  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  had  been  intro- 
duced into  parliament  and  carried  through  some  of  their  stages. 
The  pressure  of  other  business,  the  influence  of  the  merchants  who 
were  engaged  in  the  trade,  and  the  tide  of  opposition  to  all  kinds 
of  reform  had,  however,  prevented  any  bill  from  being  actually 
carried  until  1806.  In  that  year,  while  Fox  was  prime  minister, 
a  bill  was  brought  in  and  passed  providing  that  the  slave  trade 
should  cease  after  January  i,  1808.  This  was  the  same  date  as  the 
United  States  had  just  fixed  for  its  abolition,  so  far  as  vessels  bring- 
ing slaves  to  that  country  were  concerned.  In  neither  country  did 
these  measures  abolish  slavery  itself,  which  still  continued  in  the 
West  Indian  and  some  other  colonies  of  Great  Britain,  as  it  did  in 
the  southern  states  of  the  American  Union.  In  1814  most  of  the 

other  countries  of  Europe  abol- 
ished the  slave  trade,  and  its 
general  condemnation  was  made 
one  of  the  terms  of  the  Treaty 
of  Vienna  the  following  year. 

55 1 .  Renewal  of  the  War  with 
Medal  prepared  by  Napoleon  to  be    France.  —  The  peace  signed  at 
issued  at  London  when  he  should    Amiens  in   1802  did  not  long 
have  conquered  England  continue.  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 

although  only  possessing  at  that  time  the  title  of  First  Consul,  had 
become  practically  the  ruler  of  France,  and  in  fact  in  1804  took 
the  title  of  emperor.  The  war  of  England  against  the  French 
republic,  therefore,  was  gradually  merged  into  a  war  against 
Napoleon.  England  became  the  soul  of  the  opposition  of  the 


AMERICAN   AND    FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       6ll 


other  countries  of  Europe  to  the  great  French  emperor.  At  one 
time  or  another  she  formed  alliances  with  Spain,  Holland,  Prussia, 
Austria,  Russia,  and  some  of  the  minor  powers  of  Europe.  When 
the  continental  countries  were  defeated  and  one  alliance  after  an- 
other was  dissolved,  England  regularly  set  to  work  to  form  a  new 
coalition.  Her  wealth  enabled  her  not  only  to  equip  and  pay 
her  own  troops  but  also  to  subscribe  money  to  keep  the  troops 
of  Prussia,  Russia,  Austria,  and  other  countries  in  the  field. 

No  account  of  the  frequent  and  long  campaigns  and  of  the 
many  alliances  can  of  course  be  given  here.  England's  part  in 
the  war  on  land  until  1813  was  not  either  very  prominent  or  very 
successful,  but  she  won  great  glory 
upon  the  sea.  Over  and  over  again 
she  showed  herself  superior  to 
French  fleets,  even  when  these 
were  joined,  as  they  were  later, 
by  those  of  Holland  or  Spain. 

552 .  Nelson.  — The  great  hero 
of  her  naval  history  proved  to  be 
Horatio  Nelson,  who  had  been 
brought  up  in  the  navy  and 
reached  the  command  of  a  vessel 
before  he  was  twenty  years  old. 
He  served  in  the  American  war 
and  by  the  time  he  was  forty  had 
taken  part  in  one  hundred  and 
twenty  engagements.  In  1797, 
when  he  was  simply  a  commodore,  he  won  a  great  victory  off 
Cape  St.  Vincent  over  the  Spanish  fleet  which  was  on  its  way  to 
join  the  French  fleet  at  Brest.  Soon  afterwards  he  was  made 
admiral.  In  1798",  in  the  Battle  of  the  Nile,  fought  in  Aboukir 
Bay,  he  destroyed  the  French  fleet  and  made  useless  the  army 
which  Bonaparte  had  taken  to  Egypt.  In  1805  the  greatest  and 
the  crowning  naval  battle  of  the  war,  fought  off  Cape  Trafalgar, 


Lord  Nelson 


6l2  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

resulted  in  the  total  destruction  of  the  last  considerable  fleet 
which  the  French  placed  upon  the  sea  during  this  war.  Nelson, 
who  had  now  been  made  a  viscount  and  had  become  the  idol  of 
the  sailors  and  indeed  of  the  whole  nation,  at  the  opening  of  the 
engagement  put  up  the  signal,  "  England  expects  that  every  man 
will  do  his  duty."  The  victory  of  the  English  was  decisive  but 
Nelson  fell  mortally  wounded  and  died  just  as  he  heard  the  news 
of  the  destruction  of  the  French  fleet.  His  body  was  buried  in 
St.  Paul's  cathedral. 

553.  Advantages  of  the  War  to  England.  — The  command  of  the 
sea  which  England  thus  obtained  gave  her  three  great  advantages. 
In  the  first  place,  she  was  enabled  to  ward  off  invasion  and  to 
prevent  warfare  upon  her  own  territory.  Secondly,  she  was  able 
to  capture  almost  all  the  French  colonies  and  even  those  of 
Holland,  after  that  country  had  allied  itself  with  France.  The 
French  possessions  in  the  West  Indies,  Africa,  and  the  Indian 
Ocean  and  the  Dutch  colonies  of  Java,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
and  Guiana  were  one  after  another  seized  while  their  home  gov- 
ernments were  not  in  a  position  to  defend  them.  Most  of  the 
colonies  thus  captured  were  returned  at  the  conclusion  of  peace, 
but  England  retained  Tobago  and  St.  Lucia  in  the  West  Indies, 
one  half  of  Guiana  on  the  coast  of  South  America,  Malta  in 
the  Mediterranean,  and  two  great  stations  on  the  road  to  India, 
that  is  to  say,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  the  Isle  of  France. 
Thirdly,  England  was  able  to  get  possession  of  most  of  the  com- 
merce of  the  world  except  that  part  of  it  which  was  carried  on 
by  the  United  States  and  that  of  the  far  East.  The  European 
colonies  in  America  and  the  native  races  of  Africa  and  Asia  made 
a  great  market  for  the  manufactured  goods  which  England  was  now 
able  under  the  factory  system  to  produce  in  such  vast  quantities. 
The  war,  therefore,  though  it  required  heavy  taxes  and  enormous 
loans,  probably  paid  for  itself  to  England  in  the  increased  extent 
of  her  dominions  and  population  and  in  the  wealth  obtained  by 
her  manufacturers  and  merchants. 


AMERICAN   AND   FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       613 

554.  War  of  1812  with  the  United  States. — After  the  battle 
of  Trafalgar  and  Napoleon's  recognition  of  the  impossibility  of 
taking  an  army  into  England  he  tried  to  destroy  her  prosperity 
by  closing  to  her  vessels  all  the  ports  of  France  and  her  allies, 
which  included  almost  the  whole  continent  of  Europe.  He  an- 
nounced that  England  herself  was  blockaded,  and  that  all  neutral 
vessels  which  entered  an  English  harbor  and  then  entered  one  of 
the  continental  ports  would  be  seized.  These  laws  were  promul- 
gated in  the  "  Berlin  Decree  "  of  1806  and  the  "  Milan  Decree" 
of  1807,  and  are  known  as  Napoleon's  "Continental  System." 
England  retaliated  in  the  "  Orders  in  Council  "  of  1807  by  declar- 
ing all  the  ports  of  France  and  her  allies  blockaded  and  requiring 
neutral  vessels  to  stop  at  a  British  harbor  and  obtain  permission 
before  entering  any  French  or  allied  port.  These  rules  of  action 
were  hard  on  the  vessels  of  the  United  States,  the  only  important 
neutral  power.  If  they  sailed  directly  for  a  French  port  they 
were  apt  to  be  seized  by  English  war  vessels  for  violation  of  the 
Orders  in  Council ;  if  they  stopped  at  an  English  port  before 
going  to  the  continent  they  were  seized  when  they  reached  it  for 
violation  of  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees. 

Disputes  connected  with  this  matter  were  accompanied  by 
others  arising  from  the  English  claim  of  a  right  to  search  Ameri- 
can vessels  for  war  material,  and  her  practice  of  seizing  from 
American  ships  men  whom  she  claimed  to  be  deserters  from  her 
own  navy.  These  claims,  weakly  submitted  to  by  the  United 
States  for  a  while,  led  in  1812  to  an  outbreak  of  war  between  the 
two  countries.  The  land  fighting  was  not  considerable,  although 
English  troops  were  landed  in  America,  burned  the  capitol  at 
Washington,  and  were  later  defeated  in  an  engagement  at  New 
Orleans.  On  the  sea  the  English  were  surprised  to  find  that  the 
new  nation  which  had  sprung  from  themselves  showed  a  naval 
superiority  which  led  to  the  capture  of  many  English  vessels. 
The  war  was  closed  in  1814  by  a  compromise  which  left  most  of 
the  questions  at  issue  unsettled.  At  the  same  time  it  was  quite 


614  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

unlikely  that  England  would  in  the  future  try  to  enforce  the  high 
claims  she  had  made  before  the  war.  The  differences  between 
the  two  nations  had  also  lost  much  of  their  intensity  as  a  result  of 
the  close  of  the  great  war  with  France  which  had  brought  the 
disputes  between  them  into  existence. 

555.  Close  of  the  Wars.  —  During  the  years  from  1808  to 
1815  England's  part  in  the  wars  against  Napoleon  had  become 
more  prominent.  In  the  first  of  those  years  British  troops  were 

sent  to  Portugal  and  Spain  to  assist 
the  people  of  those  countries  to  resist 
the  French  armies.  This  "Peninsular 
Campaign,"  as  it  is  called,  proved  to 
be  an  extensive  series  of  battles  and 
manoeuvres  extending  over  five  years. 
Its  direction  was  taken  by  Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley,an  officer  trained  in  military 
service  in  India.  He  proved  to  be 
England's  greatest  general  and  in  re- 
ward for  his  efforts  was  made  duke  of 
Wellington.  These  efforts  were  ulti- 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  mately  crowned  with  success  and  the 
French  were  finally  driven  out  of  Portugal  and  Spain. 

By  this  time  the  tide  of  success  was  turning  against  Napoleon 
in  other  directions  also.  The  great  army  which  he  led  into  Russia 
in  an  attack  on  the  Czar  in  1812  was  annihilated  by  the  terrible 
weather,  the  long  marches,  and  the  slow  starvation  •  and  another 
army  which  he  gathered  in  1 8 1 3  was  crushed  by  the  allies  in  Ger- 
many. He  was  deposed  in  1814  and  banished  to  the  island  of 
Elba,  and  Louis  XVIII  was  made  king  of  France.  A  few  months 
afterwards  Napoleon  escaped,  returned  to  France,  was  accepted 
again  as  emperor,  and  organized  another  army.  But  his  efforts 
were  in  vain.  He  succumbed  to  the  united  forces  of  Europe,  and 
in  the  great  battle  of  Waterloo,  fought  in  June,  1815,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Wellington,  was  finally  and  decisively  defeated  by  an  allied 


AMERICAN    AND    FRENCH   REVOLUTIONS       615 

army  of  English  and  Prussians.  The  long  wars  had  at  last  come  to 
an  end.  A  series  of  treaties  was  entered  into  at  Vienna  in  1814 
and  1815  by  England,  France,  and  the  other  European  countries. 

556.  Summary  of  the  Period  1763-1815. — The  period  of 
fifty-two  years  which  intervened  between  1763  and  1815  saw 
a  profound  transformation  in  England.  The  improvements  in 
manufacturing,  agriculture,  and  transportation  began  a  series 
of  changes  which  deeply  affected  all  classes  of  society.  The 
old  settled  ways 'could  no  longer  be  retained.  New  classes  of 
employers  and  new  classes  of  employees  grew  up,  with  differ- 
ent ways  of  thinking  and  acting.  All  parts  of  the  country  were 
brought  within  easy  reach  of  one  another,  and  when  the  railroad 
and  the  telegraph  were  introduced  a  generation  or  two  later  they 
only  made  more  complete  the  changes  which  were  already  begun. 

The  struggle  with  the  American  colonies  not  only  led  to  the 
loss  of  those  possessions  but  also  to  the  breakdown  of  the  narrow 
personal  management  of  parliament  by  the  king  and  the  ministry. 
The  English  as  well  as  the  American  people  were  more  free  as  a 
result  of  the  revolution  carried  through  by  the  latter.  During 
the  wars  of  the  French  Revolution  and  of  Napoleon,  England 
obtained  an  extension  of  her  colonial  dominions  which  in  some 
degree  made  up  for  the  loss  of  the  thirteen  colonies  in  America. 
The  long  struggle  with  France,  it  is  true,  gave  a  setback  to  all 
reforms  in  England,  and  Ireland  was,  after  a  time  of  greater  lib- 
erty, more  completely  subjugated  than  ever  before.  Neverthe- 
less this  condition  in  England  and  Ireland  could  hardly  be  a 
permanent  one. 

The  part  which  England  played  in  the  wars  necessarily  gave 
her  a. high  place  in  Europe  at  their  conclusion  and  in  the  years 
that  followed.  But  the  real  effects  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  upon 
her  are  to  be  measured  not  so  much  by  the  successes  in  the 
Peninsula  and  at  Waterloo  as  by  the  colonial  acquisitions  and 
increased  trade  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  heavy  taxes,  burden- 
some debt,  and  dissatisfied  population  on  the  other. 


616  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  x,  sects.  2-4.  The 
Industrial  Revolution  is  more  fully  described  in  CHEYNEY,  Industrial  and 
Social  History  of  England,  chap,  viii,  and  in  WARNER,  Landmarks  of  Eng- 
lish Industrial  History,  chaps,  xv  and  xvi.  The  American  war  is  well 
described  from  the  English  side  in  TREVELYAN,  The  American  Revolution. 
MORLEY,  Edmund  Burke  ;  TREVELYAN,  Early  Life  of  Charles  James  Fox  ; 
and  ROSEBERY,  Pitt,  are  valuable  biographies.  MAHAN,  Influence  of  Sea 
Power  on  the  French  Revolution  and  The  Life  of  Nelson,  are  important  and 
suggestive  books.  MACAULAY,  Warren  Hastings  and  William  Pitt. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  Junius  Letters  are  published  in  several 
forms.  Documents  concerned  with  the  American  Revolution  are  pub- 
lished in  Old  South  Leaflets,  Nos.  3,  9,  47,  and  68,  and  in  HART,  American 
History  told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  II,  parts  vi-viii.  BURKE,  Speeches  and 
Letters,  published  in  cheap  form  in  Morley's  Universal  Library,  show  how 
the  French  Revolution  was  looked  upon  in  England.  Conditions  in  parlia- 
ment are  well  exemplified  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book,  Nos.  104-107.  Some 
of  the  Junius  Letters,  No.  45  of  the  North  Briton,  the  Berlin  Decree,  and 
several  other  interesting  documents  are  given  in  COLBY,  Selections  from  the 
Sources,  Nos.  97-111. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  DICKENS,  Barnaby  Rudge,  describes  the  Lord 
George  Gordon  riots,  and  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities  a  part  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. SCOTT,  Guy  Mannering,  Redgauntlet,  The  Antiquary,  and  St.  Ro- 
narfs  Well,  belong  to  this  period.  VICTOR  HUGO,  Les  Miserables,  contains 
a  vivid  description  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  CAMPBELL,  Battle  of  the 
Baltic  and  Ye  Mariners  of  England,  are  vigorous  war  poems.  WOLFE,  The 
Burial  of  Sir  John  Moore,  refers  to  an  incident  in  the  Peninsular  War. 
BYRON,  Childe  Harold 's  Pilgrimage,  has  a  famous  passage  describing  the 
battle  of  Waterloo.  The  Irish  song,  The  Wearing  of  the  Green,  refers  to 
the  rebellion  of  the  United  Irishmen  in  1 798.  THOMAS  DAVIS,  The  Ger- 
aldines,  belongs  to  the  same  period. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Purchasing  of  Seats  in  Parliament,  KENDALL, 
Source-Book,  No.  105 ;  (2)  The  French  Revolution,  ROBINSON,  Western 
Europe,  chaps,  xxxv  and  xxxvi;  (3)  Napoleon,  ibid.,  chaps,  xxxvii  and 
xxxviii;  (4)  Taxation  of  the  American  Colonies,  LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos. 
202-204;  (5)  The  Union  with  Ireland,  ibid.,  Nos.  206-208;  (6)  Reynolds, 
Gainsborough,  and  Romney,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  V,  pp.  281-301  ; 
(7)  Manufacturing  Inventions,  ibid.,  pp.  305-317  ;  (8)  Improvements  in 
Pottery,  ibid.,  pp.  317-322;  (9)  Howard  and  Prison  Reform,  ibid.,  pp. 
482-488 ;  (10)  The  Army  during  the  Wars  with  Napoleon,  ibid.,  pp.  526-541 ; 
(i  i)  Ireland  and  the  Union,  GREEN,  Short  History,  chap,  x,  sect.  4 ;  (12)  The 
Battle  of  Waterloo,  HUGO,  Les  Miserables. 


CHAPTER   XIX 
THE  PERIOD  OF  REFORM.     1815-1852 

557.  The  Early  Years  of  the  Peace.  — The  year  1815  was  the 
close  of  a  long  era  of  war,  and  peace  might  well  be  expected  to 
bring  better  times.  Yet  the  period  that  immediately  followed 
the  Treaty  of  Vienna  was  not  one  of  prosperity  or  of  national 
happiness  for  England.  The  expenses  of  the  war  had  increased 
the  national  debt  enormously  and  taxes  were  therefore  very  high. 
Many  soldiers  and  sailors  were  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the 
coming  of  peace.  The  corn  laws,  an  import  duty  on  wheat, 
prevented  its  importation  and  therefore  kept  the  price  of  food 
high.  Two  or  three  bad  seasons  in  succession  made  the  price 
still  higher.  Not  so  many  goods  could  be  exported,  now  that 
the  ships  of  other  countries  could  again  sail  on  the  seas,  and 
commerce  and  manufacturing  suffered  correspondingly. 

These  hard  times  turned  attention  to  the  old  abuses  in  the 
government,  which  had  been  to  a  great  extent  forgotten  or  neg- 
lected under  the  pressure  of  war.  As  a  result  agitation  began 
again  and  a  party  of  radicals  was  organized  which  revived  the 
old  cry  for  reform  of  parliament.  A  well-known  newspaper, 
Cobbett's  Weekly  Political  Register,  which  had  always  been  sold 
for  a  shilling,  was  in  1816  reduced  in  price  to  twopence,  and 
with  great  clearness  of  argument  and  vigor  of  style  advocated 
reform  of  parliament  as  a  cure  for  all  the  evils  of  the  time.  It 
was  the  first  cheap  newspaper  and  immense  numbers  were  sold 
and  read.  But  many  of  the  radicals  took  more  active  means 
to  express  their  discontent,  and  much  disorderly  agitation  marked 
the  next  few  years.  The  lower  classes  broke  out  into  riots,  held 

617 


6i8 


A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


mass  meetings,  formed  societies,  and  even  secretly  gathered  arms 
and  drilled. 

The  Tory  party  was  in  an  overwhelming  majority  in  parlia- 
ment and  its  leaders  were  settled  in  their  opposition  to  reform  of 
any  kind.  They  feared  lest  changes  once  begun  would  go  farther 
and  farther  and  lead  to  some  such  overthrow  as  the  French  Revo- 
lution, which  had  just  passed.  They  felt  that  the  only  safety  was 
in  resistance  to  the  beginning  of  change.  Everything  was  to  be 
kept  just  as  it  was.  Therefore  when  agita- 
tion became  more  widespread  the  ministry 
obtained  from  parliament  the  adoption  of 
what  were  known  as  the  "  Six  Laws,"  which 
allowed  the  government  to  forbid  seditious 
meetings,  suspended  the  writ  of  habeas  cor- 
pus for  six  months,  and  provided  for  the 
speedy  trial  and  conviction  of  breakers  of 
the  peace.  Popular  writers  were  prosecuted 
for  expressions  used  in  their  writings,  and 
in  every  way  repression  was  practiced  similar 
to  the  action  of  Pitt  against  the  agitators  of 
the  period  from  1790  to  1795. 
558.  The  Manchester  Massacre.  —  These  conditions  came  to  a 
head  in  1819  in  what  was  then  called  the  "  Manchester  Mas- 
sacre." A  great  meeting  was  summoned  by  the  leaders  of  the 
reformers  in  that  city  to  listen  to  addresses  from  popular  speakers. 
The  mayor  and  justices  of  the  peace  declared  this  meeting  illegal 
and  prohibited  the  holding  of  it.  The  leaders  determined  to  pro- 
ceed notwithstanding  the  prohibition,  and  on  the  appointed  day 
an  immense  gathering  crowded  St.  Peter's  Field,  a  park  in  the 
city.  The  magistrates  had  called  out  a  considerable  military 
force  and  determined  to  enforce  their  prohibition  by  the  arrest  of 
the  speakers,  although  no  special  act  of  disorder  had  been  com- 
mitted or  seemed  likely  to  be  committed.  Some  constables  were 
therefore  ordered  to  make  their  way  through  the  dense  crowd  to 


Royal  Arms  from  1816 
to  1837 :  a  Crown  sur- 
mounting the  Shield, 
Hanover  now  being 
a  Kingdom 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  619 

the  speakers'  stand.  In  doing  so  they  were  jostled  and  jeered,  when 
the  magistrates  seem  to  have  lost  their  heads  and  ordered  the  cav- 
alry to  ride  down  the  crowd.  The  result  of  their  charge  was  the 
death  of  several  men  and  the  wounding  of  a  large  number. 

The  use  of  military  forces  for  police  duty  has  always  been 
extremely  unpopular  in  England  and  this  unnecessary  and  vio- 
lent action  of  the  Manchester  authorities  aroused  much  anger 
throughout  the  country.  On  the  other  hand,  the  prince  regent 
and  the  ministers  sent  messages  of  exaggerated  praise  to  the 
magistrates  and  military  officers  concerned  in  the  affair,  while  par- 
liament immediately  passed  still  more  repressive  laws.  For  a 
time  it  seemed  that  the  country  was  dividing  into  two  camps,  — 
the  mass  of  the  people  who  were  demanding  reform,  and  the  gov- 
erning classes  who  were  determined  to  silence  their  clamor. 

559.  George  Canning  and  Moderate  Toryism.  — The  violence  of 
the  agitation  became  somewhat  less  as  time  passed.     From  1816 
onward  a  stream  of  emigration  of  the  working  classes  began  to 
flow  towards  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  Australia,  and  many 
found  in  these  new  lands  a  prosperity  which  they  could  never  have 
attained  at  home.     Even  in  England  times  became  somewhat 
better  after  1820.      Lord  Sidmouth,  who  had  been  responsible 
for  the  harshest  of  the  measures  against  the  Radicals,  resigned,  and 
Lord  Castlereagh,  the  most  reactionary  of  the  ministers,  died. 
In  1822  George  Canning  became  minister  for  foreign  affairs  and 
in  1827  was  made  prime  minister.    Tory  as  he  was,  he  carried  on 
a  far  more  liberal  foreign  policy  than  that  which  had  been  pur- 
sued during  the  early  part  of  the  century,  approving  the  efforts  of 
other  countries  in  Europe  to  obtain  greater  freedom  and  giving 
ready  acknowledgment  to  the  independence  of  the  Spanish  colo- 
nies in  America.     This  made  the  government  more  popular  at 
home,  and  even  in  internal  affairs  Canning's  influence  and  that  of 
some  of  his  colleagues  was  exercised  in  favor  of  certain  reforms. 

560.  Reform  of  the  Penal  Code.  —  Efforts  had  long  been  made 
by  certain  enlightened  men  to  obtain  a  reduction  of  punishments 


620  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

for  small  offenses,  and  to  these  the  ministry  now  gave  its  support 
In  1800  the  death  penalty  was  prescribed  for  as  many  as  two 
hundred  kinds  of  offenses.  Misdemeanors  of  the  most  petty 
character  were  punishable  by  death.  Picking  pockets  if  the 
value  of  what  was  taken  was  as  much  as  one  shilling,  shoplifting 
if  the  article  stolen  was  of  the  value  of  five  shillings,  sheep 
stealing,  forgery,  counterfeiting,  and  a  great  many  other  offenses 
of  all  descriptions  were  by  law  all  punishable  by  death. 

This  severe  code  left  no  distinction  between  such  a  slight 
offense  as  petty  thieving  and  such  a  terrible  crime  as  murder. 
The  smaller  offense  was  punished  by  hanging  and  the  greater 
one  could  be  punished  by  nothing  more.  So  unreasonable  and 
so  harsh  was  the  system  that  juries  often  declared  culprits  inno- 
cent directly  in  the  face  of  the  evidence  of  their  guilt,  or  declared 
very  valuable  articles  worth  less  than  five  shillings,  rather  than 
inflict  such  a  heavy  punishment  for  so  slight  a  crime.  Many  who 
were  sentenced  to  death  were  pardoned  or  the  death  penalty 
commuted  to  imprisonment  or  transportation.  Punishment  was 
therefore  very  uncertain;  nevertheless  crime  and  its  punishment 
were  only  too  common.  Hangings  at  Tyburn  in  London  and  at 
corresponding  places  of  execution  in  other  towns  were  a  frequent 
occurrence,  and  attendance  at  them  was  a  common  and  demor- 
alizing form  of  amusement  for  the  populace. 

The  efforts  of  those  who  wrote,  spoke,  and  pleaded  in  parlia- 
ment for  a  reduction  in  the  severity  of  punishments  were  at  last 
successful.  Some  of  the  worst  evils  were  removed  soon  after  the 
abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  in  1824  Peel  as  home  sec- 
retary, supported  by  Canning  and  some  of  the  other  minis- 
ters, induced  parliament  to  abolish  the  death  penalty  for  a  great 
many  more  offenses.  Some  years  afterwards  the  death  penalty 
for  forgery,  counterfeiting,  horse  stealing,  sheep  stealing,  and  in 
fact  for  all  other  offenses  except  treason,  murder,  and  certain 
other  crimes  of  violence,  was  removed.  Imprisonment  for  debt 
was  abolished  in  1813,  the  public  whipping  of  women  in  1820, 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  621 

and  in  1836  prisoners  were  for  the  first  time  allowed  to  have  a 
lawyer  to  speak  for  them. 

561.  Repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts,  1828 But  the 

greatest  of  these  early  reforms  lay  in  the  field  of  religious  tolera- 
tion.    It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Toleration  Act  of  1689 
gave  to  Dissenters  freedom  of  worship  but  did  not  give  them 
any  right  to  hold  office,  while  the  Catholics  were  not  given  either 
religious  or  political  rights.     But  as  time  went  on  the  tide  grad- 
ually turned  in  their  favor,  the  laws  were  not  carried  out  in  all 
points,  and  Dissenters  at  least  were  allowed  to  hold  some  offices. 
In  1812  the  Five-Mile  and  Conventicle  acts  were  repealed  and 
in  1828  after  a  hard  contest  the  Test  and  Corporation  acts  were 
also  repealed.1    This  gave  Dissenters  practically  the  same  political 
rights  as  members  of  the  church  of  England.     Catholics  had  been 
given  freedom  of  worship  in   1778  by  the  act  which  brought 
on  the  Lord  George  Gordon  riots,2  and  the  repeal  of  the  Test 
Act  in  1828  allowed  them  to  hold  most  offices.     Even  yet,  how- 
ever, they  were  excluded  from  membership  in  parliament. 

562.  Catholic  Emancipation,  1829,  and  Reform  of  Parliament. 
— Yet  this  privilege  was  just  what  the  Catholics  of  England  and 
Ireland  desired  most  of  all.     They  felt  that  so  long  as  they  had 
no  representatives  in  parliament  they  had  no  real  equality  with 
Protestants.     Catholic  emancipation,  as  it  was  called,  had  long 
been  advocated  by  the  more  liberal  members  of  the  ministry 
and  of  parliament ;    but  it  was  still   strongly  opposed   by  the 
stricter  Tories  and  by  the  king.     The  final  change  was  brought 
about  by  events  in  Ireland.     In  1823  the  "  Catholic  Association  " 
was   formed    in   that  country  under   the   leadership  of   Daniel 
O'Connell,  a  Catholic  lawyer  and  an  orator  of  wonderful  power. 
Without  actually  violating  the  law  this  association,  which   had 
branches  all  through  Ireland,  kept  up  an  active  agitation,  draw- 
ing up  repeated  petitions  to  parliament  and  holding  meetings 
at  which  addresses  were  made  by  O'Connell  and  other  leaders. 

1  For  the  adoption  of  these  acts  see  pp.  471-473.  2  See  p.  600, 


622  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

In  1828,  when  a  special  election  for  a  member  of  parliament 
from  the  Irish  county  of  Clare  was  to  be  held,  the  Association 
decided  to  put  up  their  president,  O'Connell,  as  a  candidate 
against  the  two  candidates  favored  by  the  ministry.  Although 
Catholics  could  not  sit  in  parliament  they  could  vote,  and  thou- 
sands of  the  small  farmers  of  county  Clare  marched  to  the  polls 
and  voted  unanimously  for  O'Connell.  At  the  urgent  appeal  of 
the  officers  of  the  Catholic  Association  the  members  abstained 
entirely  from  drinking,  and  there  was  only  one  intoxicated  man 
at  the  polls,  and  he  was  a  Protestant  and  an  Englishman,  the  coach- 
man of  O'Connell.  Although  it  was  said  that  thirty  thousand  of 
the  peasants  attended  the  election,  there  was  no  disorder  nor 
threatening,  but  only  well-disciplined,  unanimous  determination 
to  have  their  way. 

The  only  reason  the  Catholic  peasants  were  so  orderly  was 
because  they  believed  that  their  leaders  were  about  to  obtain 
their  religious  emancipation.  They  would  have  been  just  as  will- 
ing to  obey  orders,  if  these  orders  had  been  to  fight  for  their, 
rights.  The  English  ministry  realized  this  and  perceived  that  they 
must  either  give  to  the  Catholics  the  rights  they  demanded  or 
make  up  their  minds  to  put  down  another  Irish  rebellion.  They 
chose  the  former  alternative.  The  duke  of  Wellington  and  Peel 
with  great  difficulty  obtained  the  king's  consent  to  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Catholic  Emancipation  Bill,  and  with  almost  as 
great  difficulty  induced  their  Tory  supporters  in  parliament  to 
vote  for  it.  It  was,  however,  finally  carried  in  1829,  and  the  last 
legal  restriction  on  the  liberty  of  the  Catholics  was  removed. 
Instead  of  the  old  formula,  all  that  was  now  required  was  a  simple 
oath  "  on  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian  "  to  support  the  govern- 
ment and  not  to  injure  the  established  church.  On  making  such 
a  promise  a  Catholic  could  in  future  hold  any  office  to  which  he 
had  been  appointed  or  elected  excepting  regent,  lord  chancellor 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  viceroy  of  Ireland,  or  royal  commissioner 
of  Scotland. 


THE   PERIOD   OF    REFORM 


623 


The  Tory  ministry  had  granted  these  concessions  not  because 
they  approved  of  them  but  because  to  have  refused  them  would 
have  brought  about  still  worse  results.  But  the  reform  of  par- 
liament was  too  far-reaching  a  change  for  them  to  even  consider 
seriously.  That  subject  came  up  again  in  1820  and  was  during 
the  next  few  years  vigorously  advocated  by  the  remainder  of  the 
old  Whig  party  and  by  the  new  Radical  party.  However,  every 
bill  affecting  parliament  which  was  brought  in  was  defeated  by 
large  majorities.  When  the  reformers  tried  to  deprive  of  their 
representatives  certain  of  the  old 
close  boroughs  where  bribery  was 
worst,  the  ministry  was  strong  enough 
to  defeat  them. 

563.  George  IV George  III 

died  in  1820  and  George  IV  became 
king.    The  new  monarch  was  a  man 
of  low  principles  and  dissolute  habits. 
He  married  a  Roman  Catholic  lady 
in  secret  but  disowned  her  in  order 
to  obtain  the  crown.     Later  he 
married  a  German  princess  in  order 
to   induce   parliament   to   pay   his 
debts,  but  he  soon  neglected  and 

ill-treated  her  and  finally  sought  a  divorce.  He  was  always  deeply 
in  debt  and  took  little  part  in  the  government  except  occasionally 
to  interpose  his  influence  in  opposition  to  reforms.  He  was  of  fine 
appearance  and  always  dressed  in  the  height  of  fashion  and  was 
therefore  sometimes  very  unworthily  called  "  the  first  gentleman  in 
Europe."  He  was  amiable  and  disinclined  to  severity  in  punish- 
ments ;  but  taken  all  in  all  he  was  one  of  the  sovereigns  of  whom 
England  can  be  least  proud  in  all  the  long  line.  In  1830  he  died 
and  having  no  children  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  William  IV. 

564.  A  Whig  Majority.  — The  death  of  the  king  dissolved 
parliament  and  necessitated    the  election  of   a  new  one.     The 


William  IV 


624  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

elections  for  this  new  parliament  took  place  in  the  summer  of 
1830.  It  was  a  critical  time.  The  old  Tory  party  had  been 
much  divided  by  the  concessions  of  the  ministry  on  the  question 
of  Catholic  emancipation.  Many  of  the  strictest  Tories  who 
were  borough  owners,  in  order  to  punish  their  leaders,  returned 
members  who  would  in  future  be  opposed  to  Wellington,  who 
had  become  prime  minister  in  1828,  soon  after  the  death  of  Can- 
ning. Causes  outside  of  England  deprived  the  ministry  of  some 
more  of  their  supporters.  In  June  there  had  occurred  a  new 
revolution  in  France  by  which  the  old  line  of  kings  who  had 
been  restored  after  the  downfall  of  Napoleon  were  now  driven 
out  and  Louis  Philippe,  a  more  liberal  king  representing  the 
middle  classes,  was  put  on  the  throne.  The  sympathy  with  this 
occurrence  was  widespread  in  England,  and  thousands  of  voters 
where  they  had  a  chance  really  to  control  the  elections  voted 
in  favor  of  candidates  who  would  oppose  the  duke  of  Wellington 
and  his  party.  The  old  question  of  the  reform  of  parliament 
was  in  the  air,  and  every  nerve  was  strained  by  those  who  felt 
that  the  time  had  at  last  come  when  it  might  be  gained. 

The  result  was  a  defeat  for  the  Tory  party,  which  had  been  in 
control  now  with  one  short  break  for  forty-six  years.  When 
parliament  gathered  in  the  fall  of  1830,  and  the  question  of 
reform  was  brought  up,  Wellington  declared  that  no  reform  was 
needed  or  wanted  and  stated  his  intention  of  opposing  it  in  every 
way.  He  also  expressed  his  disapproval  of  the  recent  liberal 
revolutions  on  the  continent  and  showed  a  general  determination 
to  use  all  the  powers  of  the  government  to  repress  rather  than 
to  accede  to  the  popular  wishes.  He  was  soon  outvoted  and 
with  the  whole  Tory  ministry  resigned  office. 

565.  Introduction  of  a  Reform  Bill.  —  Lord  Grey  became 
prime  minister  and  a  cabinet  was  formed  which  included  most 
of  the  more  liberal  Whigs.  A  bill  for  the  reform  of  parliament 
was  immediately  introduced.  It  was  far-reaching  in  its  character. 
It  proposed  to  deprive  the  whole  group  of  "  rotten  boroughs," 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  625 

including  sixty  small  towns,  of  their  separate  representation  in 
parliament,  and  to  reduce  from  two  to  one  the  representatives  of 
each  of  forty-six  other  boroughs  which  were  somewhat  larger  but 
yet  of  less  than  four  thousand  inhabitants  each.  As  Lord  Rus- 
sell, who  introduced  the  bill,  read  the  long  list  of  these  boroughs 
and  explained  that  the  ministry  proposed  to  sweep  away  all  their 
representation  and  transfer  their  members  to  the  most  populous 
counties  and  to  the  large  manufacturing  towns,  the  Tory  mem- 
bers could  hardly  believe  that  the  statement  was  meant  seriously. 
But  the  ministry  was  quite  serious  and  the  bill  as  it  had  been 
submitted  soon  became  a  matter  of  intense  interest  to  the  whole 
country  as  well  as  to  parliament.  The  popular  cry,  "  The  bill, 
the  whole  bill,  and  nothing  but  the  bill,"  rang  out  everywhere. 
Popular  associations  were  formed  in  the  usual  way,  delegates 
were  elected  to  a  national  body  representing  these  associations, 
riots  broke  out  here  and  there,  and  attacks  were  made  upon  men 
who  were  prominent  in  their  opposition  to  reform. 

After  long  debate  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons 
declared  its  opposition  to  the  measure.  The.  ministers  advised 
the  king  to  dissolve  parliament  and  hold  a  new  election  on  the 
one  great  subject  of  the  time.  This  was  done  and  the  election 
took  place  in  the  midst  of  the  most  intense  excitement.  The 
result  was  that  all  those  who  had  supported  the  bill  were  reelected 
and  that  many  of  those  who  had  opposed  it  were  defeated  and 
their  places  taken  by  reformers.  When  parliament  met  again  the 
bill  was  introduced  a  second  time  and  was  now  carried  through 
the  House  of  Commons  by  a  majority  of  more  than  a  hundred. 
But  the  House  of  Lords  immediately  defeated  it  by  an  adverse 
majority  almost  as  large.  The  months  following  this  defeat  of 
the  Reform  Bill  were  marked  by  even  greater  popular  excitement 
than  before.  When  parliament  met  again  in  the  winter  of  1 83 1 
and  the  ministers  introduced  the  bill  for  a  third  time,  it  passed 
the  House  of  Commons  by  a  still  larger  majority,  and  again  the 
House  of  Lords  showed  their  intention  of  voting  against  it. 


626  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

566.  Dispute  between  the  Houses. — There  was  now  a  dead- 
lock.    The  House  of  Commons  passed  resolutions  of  confidence 
in  the  ministers,  requesting  them  not  to  resign,  yet  the  House  of 
Lords  would  not  pass  the  bill  which  the  ministry  were  pledged 
to  carry.     The  excitement  in  the  country  rose  steadily.     Riots 
occurred  and    political  associations  numbering  many  thousand 
men  sent  offers  to  the  ministry  to  march  to  their  assistance  if 
they  were  needed.     At  the  meetings  of  these  associations  reso- 
lutions were  passed  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  hereditary  nobil- 
ity and  the  House  of  Lords.     For  a  time  the  country  stood  on 
the  brink  of  civil  war. 

There  was  just  one  possible  way  by  which  the  bill  could  be 
passed.  This  was  for  the  king,  on  the  advice  of  the  ministers, 
to  appoint  enough  new  peers  who  were  in  favor  of  the  bill  to 
overcome  the  existing  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords  against  it. 
William,  however,  did  not  like  the  Reform  Bill;  the  queen  and 
other  ladies  connected  with  the  court,  many  Tory  noblemen,  bish- 
ops, military  officers,  and  others  who  were  opposed  to  it  pleaded 
with  him  against  the  plan,  and  he  refused  the  request  of  the  min- 
istry to  coerce  the  House  of  Lords  in  this  way.  The  ministers 
immediately  resigned  and  the  king  asked  the  duke  of  Wellington 
to  form  a  Tory  ministry.  This  action  created  still  greater  opposi- 
tion in  the  country.  The  newspapers  came  out  with  broad  black 
lines  of  mourning.  Bells  were  tolled  as  if  some  national  calamity 
had  occurred.  Petitions  were  sent  to  the  House  of  Commons 
asking  that  no  more  appropriations  should  be  made  until  the  bill 
was  passed,  and  the  great  northern  political  unions  prepared  to 
march  in  a  body  to  the  vicinity  of  London. 

567.  Passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  —  Wellington  was 
brave  enough  to  undertake  the  task  of  forming  an  anti-reform 
ministry,  but  he  could  not  find  others  to  fill  the  remaining  offices 
in  the  cabinet.     He  had  reason  also  to  believe  that  the  troops 
would  not  obey  orders  if  attempts  should  be  made  to  dissolve  the 
mass  meetings  by  force.     He  reported,  therefore,  to  the  king 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM 


627 


that  he  could  not  form  a  ministry  and  advised  him  to  give  way. 
William  then  recalled  Earl  Grey  and  the  Whig  ministers  and 
promised  to  appoint  fifty  new  members  of  the  House  of  Lords,  if 
they  were  needed  to  pass  the  bill.  At  the  same  time,  however, 
he  sent  a  letter  to  the  peers  who  were  opposing  the  bill,  telling 
them  of  this  agreement  and  suggesting  that  they  remain  away 
from  parliament  when  the  next  vote  was  taken,  so  that  such 
action  should  not  be  necessary.  The  duke  of  Wellington  also 
exercised  his  influence  in  persuading  the  opposition  lords  to 


Belvoir  Castle  :  Country-seat  of  the  Duke  of  Rutland 

refrain  from  further  resistance.  About  one  hundred  of  them, 
therefore,  absented  themselves,  the  bishops  ceased  to  oppose  the 
bill,  and  early  in  1832  it  was  passed,  signed,  and  became  a  law. 

The  bill  had  been  changed  somewhat  in  its  progress  through 
parliament  but  in  the  main  its  provisions  were  the  same.  It 
took  away  the  special  right  of  representation  from  all  boroughs 
with  less  than  two  thousand  inhabitants  and  reduced  the  repre- 
sentation of  others.  It  then  gave  more  representatives  to  the  large 
cities  and  the  most  populous  counties,  especially  those  in  the  north 
of  England.  It  reduced  the  property  qualification  of  voters  for 


628  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

knights  of  the  shire  so  that  all  independent  farmers  and  other 
well-to-do  inhabitants  in  the  country  districts  should  have  a  right 
to  vote,  though  laborers  would  not.  In  the  towns  all  persons 
occupying  houses  paying  a  rent  of  ^10  a  year  were  given  a  right 
to  vote.  This  right  of  franchise  may  be  said  roughly  to  have 
included  all  persons  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes,  but  not 
workingmen.  The  Reform  Bill  therefore  took  the  control  of  par- 
liament out  of  the  hands  of  the  narrow  aristocracy,  which  had 
dominated  it  so  long,  and  put  it  into  the  hands  of  the  middle 
classes  of  England. 

But  the  way  in  which  the  Reform  Bill  was  carried  was  quite  as 
important  as  the  actual  changes  which  it  made  in  the  law.  It  was 
forced  by  the  people,  led  by  a  group  of  liberal  ministers,  upon  a 
reluctant  House  of  Commons,  an  opposing  House  of  Lords,  and 
a  king  who  would  have  refused  to  sign  it  if  he  had  had  the  power 
to  do  so.  It  was  the  political  unions,  the  mass  meetings,  the  peti- 
tions, the  popular  excitement,  and  even  the  riots,  that  strengthened 
the  ministers  and  really  obtained  the  success  of  the  bill.  It  was 
a  great  popular  victory  over  old  established  powers  and  privileges. 
Just  as  the  Great  Charter  had  been  wrested  by  the  barons  from 
King  John,  just  as  the  Petition  of  Right  had  been  obtained  by 
parliament  from  Charles  I,  just  as  the  Bill  of  Rights  had  secured 
to  parliament  the  supremacy  over  the  king,  so  now  the  Reform 
Bill  of  1832  gained  for  a  much  larger  part  of  the  people  the 
supremacy  over  the  small  number  that  up  to  this  time  had  alone 
been  represented.  It  was  the  occurrence  which  came  nearest  to 
a  real  political  revolution  in  the  history  of  England,  and  it  was 
the  first  step  towards  the  attainment  of  self-government  by  the 
whole  mass  of  the  English  people. 

568.  Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  Colonies.  —  The  adoption  of 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  was  followed  by  a  wave  of  reform  legis- 
lation. Although  a  decision  given  by  the  courts  in  1772  had 
declared  that  slavery  could  not  lawfully  exist  in  England  itself, 
and  the  moment  a  slave  was  brought  into  England  he  became 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  629 

free,  slavery  still  existed  in  the  British  West  Indian  colonies  and 
in  South  Africa.  The  law  of  1806  forbade  the  slave  trade,  so  no 
additional  slaves  could  be  brought  into  those  regions,  but  the 
race  of  negro  slaves  which  was  already  there  continued  to  exist. 
Many  of  the  arguments  which  had  been  used  against  the  slave 
trade  could  be  used  just  as  well  against  slavery  itself,  and  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  an  agitation  for  its  abolition  had  been  carried  on  ever 
since  1806.  In  1823  and  1831  a  few  rules  for  the  more  merciful 
treatment  of  slaves  and  for  their  instruction  had  been  issued  by 
the  government ;  but  not  much  was  accomplished  until  after  the 
passage  of  the  Reform  Bill.  The  parliament  elected  under  the 
new  law,  however,  passed,  in  1833,  an  emancipation  bill  freeing 
under  certain  conditions  all  slaves  owned  by  British  subjects  or 
in  British  dominions,  prohibiting  slavery  for  the  future,  and  at 
the  same  time  appropriating  ^20,000,000  to  remunerate  the 
former  slave  owners  for  their  losses.  The  bill  was  received  with 
great  anger  and  opposition  by  the  planters  of  the  West  Indies  and 
the  Boers  of  South  Africa,  but  they  had  to  submit. 

569.  The  Factory  Act  of  1833.  — Something  of  the  same  feel- 
ing of  sympathy  with  those  who  were  overworked  and  miserable 
led  to  the  passage  of  another  somewhat  similar  measure.  This 
was  a  law  prohibiting  the  employment  in  spinning  and  weaving 
factories  of  children  below  nine  years  of  age,  restricting  the  labor 
of  those  between  nine  and  thirteen  to  eight  hours  a  day,  and 
of  those  between  thirteen  and  eighteen  to  twelve  hours  a  day. 
Night  work  was  also  forbidden  for  all  young  persons,  and  certain 
requirements  were  made  for  holidays,  education,  and  the  clean- 
liness of  the  factories.  Factory  inspectors  were  appointed  whose 
sworn  duty  it  was  to  see  to  the  enforcement  of  this  law.  There 
proved  to  be  working  in  the  factories  more  than  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  children  who  came  under  the  general  super- 
vision of  the  factory  inspectors. 

Factory  laws  had  been  in  existence  for  some  years  before  this 
time,  but  they  had  not  been  enforced.  Many  more  were  adopted 


630  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

in  later  years  carrying  the  care  of  the  government  over  children, 
young  persons,  and  women  much  farther. 

570.  Reform  of  the  Poor  Law.  — The  next  year,  1834,  the  old 
poor  law  of  Elizabeth,  with  the  many  abuses  which  had  grown 
up  about  it,  was  repealed  and  a  new  law  was  passed  in  its  place. 
This  law  seemed  harsh,  as  it  put  a  stop  to  many  forms  of  relief 
which  had  long  been  given  to  the  very  poor.  But  it  was  in  real- 
ity an  attempt  to  arouse  a  greater  feeling  of  independence  and  a 
more  earnest  effort  on  the  part  of  the  laboring  classes  to  support 
themselves  and  to  make  it  more  possible  for  them  to  do  so. 

Before  this  time  people  of  the  lower  classes  who  moved  from  one 
place  to  another  were  liable  according  to  the  Law  of  Settlement 
to  be  returned  by  the  authorities  to  the  place  from  which  they 
had  come,  for  fear  their  support  would  fall  on  the  parish  in  which 
they  wished  to  settle.  The  Law  of  Settlement  was  repealed  the 
same  year  and  even  the  poorest  people  might  now  go  freely  wher- 
ever they  wished  or  wherever  they  could  find  work.  Before  1834 
a  great  number  of  persons  received  entire  or  partial  support  in 
their  own  households.  The  new  law  required  that  paupers  could 
only  get  relief  by  living  in  the  poorhouse.  In  order  to  bring  their 
wages  up  to  a  certain  amount  weekly  payments  from  the  poor 
funds  had  previously  been  made  regularly  to  laborers  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  their  children.  Wages  were  in  this  way  kept 
low  and  men  were  made  paupers  who  should  have  been  independ- 
ent workingmen.  Such  payments  were  now  forbidden.  Under 
the  old  system  pauperism  had  become  so  general  that  one  out  of 
every  six  of  the  population  of  England  was  receiving  entire  or  par- 
tial support  from  the  community.  The  poor  tax  was  not  only 
growing  to  be  an  almost  intolerable  burden,  but,  worse  still,  it 
was  destroying  the  manliness  and  self-respect  of  the  lower  classes, 
making  them  feel  that  they  were  dependent  on  the  classes  who 
paid  the  taxes,  and  destroying  all  inducements  to  thrift  and  self- 
control.  The  new  bill  in  addition  to  the  requirements  already 
mentioned  provided  for  a  more  centralized  administration  of  the 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  631 

poor  laws  under  a  national  board.  Its  result  was  to  lessen  very 
materially  the  payments  for  the  support  of  paupers  and  in  some 
degree  at  least  to  reach  the  higher  object  of  increasing  the  self- 
dependence  of  the  lower  classes. 

571.  Municipal  Corporations  Reform  Act.  —  In  1835  a  munici- 
pal corporations  act  was  passed.     This  was  intended  to  introduce 
much  the  same  changes  into  the  government  of  towns  and  cities 
as  the  Reform  Bill  itself  had  introduced  into  the  government  of 
the  whole  nation.      It  took  away  from  the  cities  and  boroughs 
the  old  charters  by  which  such  different  governments  had  been 
established  in  them,  and  organized  them  all  in  the  same  general 
form.     The  control  of  the  affairs  of  each  city  and  borough  was 
put  in  the  hands  of  the  whole  body  of  the  property  holders 
instead  of  being  exercised  only  by  a  small  group  of  the  citizens, 
as  had  been  generally  the  case  before,  or  by  all  the  inhabitants,  as 
had  been  previously  the  case  in  a  few  instances. 

572.  Cheap  Postage. — At  about  the  same  time,  through  the 
influence  of  a  member  of  parliament  named  Rowland  Hill,  the 
government  introduced  the  system  of  cheap  postage.     Before  this 
time  postage  on  letters  was  charged  in  proportion  to  the  distance 
they  were  carried,  to  their  shape,  and  to  the  number  of  sheets 
they  contained.     The  charge  was  always  high,  the  average  for  all 
Great  Britain  being  about  6d.     From  London  to  Scotland  it  was 
apt  to  cost  a  shilling  or  more,  and  even  from  London  to  the  coast 
it  cost  8^/.     Mr.  Hill  was  struck  with  the  unwisdom  of  this  sys- 
tem and  devoted  much  time  to  an  examination  of  postal  mat- 
ters with  a  view  to  their  improvement.     In  1837  he  proposed  a 
scheme  by  which  cheap  postage  should  be  introduced,  the  speed 
and  frequency  of  mails  increased,  a  uniform  rate  established,  and 
prepayment  secured  by  the  use  of  stamps.     He  trusted  to  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  letters  to  cover  the  expense.     Against 
much  opposition  his  plans  were  finally  carried  through  parliament, 
\d.  per  half  ounce  being  charged  to  all  parts  of  the  kingdom.    It 
was  an  immediate  success,  the  profit  from  the  post  office  becoming 


632 


A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


much  larger  and  the  convenience  to  the  public  infinitely  greater. 
After  a  short  time  no  one  doubted  the  superiority  of  the  system 
of  cheap  postage,  the  number  of  letters  sent  each  year  increasing 
by  many  millions. 

573.  Accession  of  Queen  Victoria. — In  1837  William  IV  died 
and  a  new  reign  began.  As  he  had  no  children  the  crown  went 
to  Victoria,  the  only  daughter  of  his  next  younger  brother,  the 
duke  of  Kent.1  She  was  only  eighteen  at  the  time  of  her  acces- 
sion, and  as  her  gray-haired  uncles,  the  dukes  of  Cumberland  and 
Cambridge,  the  great  duke  of  Wellington,  Lord  Melbourne,  the 
prime  minister,  and  other  members  of  the  privy 
council  knelt  before  the  young  girl  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  both  they  and  she  may  well 
have  been  impressed  with  the  responsibility  of 
her  position.  Her  reign  was  destined  to  be  the 
longest  in  English  history,  grave  questions  were 
impending,  parties  were  much  embittered 
against  one  another,  and  difficult  decisions  would 
have  to  be  made  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  the  reign.  At  this  time  she  was  entirely  unknown  to  her  people, 
as  she  had  been  brought  up  in  much  seclusion  ;  but  her  education 
and  training  had  been  good  and  her  subjects  soon  learned  to  recog- 
nize her  clear  judgment,  her  moderation,  her  perception  of  the 
true  position  of  the  sovereign  in  the  English  system  of  government, 
and  the  thorough  goodness  of  her  character. 

In  1840  she  married  her  cousin,  Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 
who  came  to  live  in  England  but  was  given  no  recognized  position 
1  The  descent  of  Queen  Victoria  was  as  follows : 


Royal  Coat  of 
Arms  since  1837 


George  III,  1760-1820 

1 
George  IV 
1820-1830 

Frederick 
duke  of  York 
died  1827 

William  IV 
1830-1837 

Edward 
duke  of  Kent 
died  1820 

Victoria 
1837-1901 

Ernest 
Augustus 
duke  of 
Cumberland 

Adolphus 
duke  of 
Cambridge 

THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  633 

in  the  government.  In  private  he  was,  on  the  whole,  a  wise  and 
impartial  adviser  of  his  wife,  and  his  influence  with  her  and  with 
others  was  thoroughly  good  for  England.  By  his  refined  tastes 
and  intellectual  interests  he  gave  encouragement  to  the  arts  and 
to  literature  at  a  time  when  they  received  but  scant  recognition, 
and  many  public  measures  of  usefulness  received  his  steady  and 
intelligent  support. 

574.  Liberals  and  Conservatives. — The  Whigs  and  those  who 
acted  with  them  during  the  contests  on  the  Reform  Bill  and 
the  other  measures  which  were  adopted  soon  afterwards  grad- 
ually gave  up  the  old  party  name  and  began  to  call  themselves 
"  Liberals."  This  name  soon  came  to  be  the  only  one  used 
and  was  regularly  applied  to  the  party  of  which  Earl  Grey,  Lord 
Russell,  Lord  Brougham,  and  Lord  Melbourne  were  the  leaders. 
The  name  "Whig"  went  out  of  existence.  The  more  moder- 
ate Tories,  on  the  other  hand,  accepted  loyally  the  results  of  the 
Reform  Bill  but  insisted  that  further  changes  should  be  made 
only  in  a  conservative  and  cautious  manner.  They  came  there- 
fore to  be  known  as  "  Conservatives."  The  party  name  "  Tory  " 
went  out  of  use  except  as  it  was  used  to  describe  a  man  who 
was  extremely  and  narrow-mindedly  conservative.  The  most 
influential  representatives  of  the  Conservative  party  were  the 
duke  of  Wellington  and  Sir  Robert  Peel.  The  latter  especially 
was  the  real  reorganizer  and  leader  of  the  Conservatives  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Reform  Bill.  He  was  prime  minister  for  five 
important  years,  from  1841  to  1846.  Yet  in  the  main  the  Liberals 
kept  control  of  the  government  till  after  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury, when  they  gradually  became  tired  of  a  reforming  policy. 
Their  ambition  in  that  direction  had  been  satisfied  and  they 
believed  that  no  further  political  changes  should  be  made.  They 
defeated  measures  for  admitting  Jews  to  parliament,  for  lowering 
the  franchise,  for  introducing  the  ballot  in  voting,  and  for  more 
frequent  elections,  and  no  further  great  reforms  were  to  be  put 
to  their  credit  for  many  years. 


634  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

575.  Steamboats,  Railroads,  and  Telegraphs.  —  Outside  of  par- 
liament, however,  there  was  much  progress.     The  steam  engines 
that  had  been  invented,  and  introduced  into  factories  to  furnish 
power  for  machinery  were  gradually  applied  to  purposes  of  loco- 
motion.    Steamboats  were  brought  into  use  on  the  rivers  and 
coasts  about   1812.     Twenty-five  years  afterwards,  in  1838,  the 
first  steam  vessel  crossed  the  ocean.     In  the  meantime  there  had 
been   much   experimenting  in   the   construction  of   engines   for 
traveling  on  land.     Finally  a  successful  locomotive  was  invented 
by  George  Stephenson,  a  self-educated  engineer  in  the  mining 
regions.     In    1825    the    Stockton   and    Darlington  Railway  was 
opened,  on  which  his  engines  were  used,  and  a  much  better  and 
more  famous  road  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester  was  opened 
in  1829.     On  this  road  Stephenson's  engines  drew  light  trains  at 
the  respectable  speed  of  thirty-five  miles  an  hour.     Nine  years 
afterwards  a  road  from  London  to  Birmingham  was  opened  and 
soon  all  parts   of  England    were   connected   by  rail.     The   old 
stage-coaches  soon  gave  way  to  railroad  trains  for  passenger  travel, 
and  just  as  fifty  years  before  hauling  of  goods  on  horseback  and 
by  wagon  had  given  place  to  transportation  by  canals,  so  now 
the  railroads  secured  from  these  most  of  the  freight  traffic. 

During  the  years  between  1837  and  1842  the  electric  telegraph 
was  being  perfected  and  brought  into  general  use.  The  English 
inventors  whose  names  were  most  prominently  connected  with  the 
telegraph  were  Cooke  and  Wheatstone,  but  the  alphabet  invented 
by  the  American,  Morse,  and  his  instruments  were  early  intro- 
duced into  England.  Cheap  postage,  the  railroad,  and  the  tele- 
graph made  traveling  rapid  and  the  sending  of  messages  and  news 
quick  and  cheap. 

576.  Trade  Unions.  —  England  was  becoming  a  vastly  richer 
country,  manufactures  and  commerce  were  becoming  more  exten- 
sive, and  the  whole  character  of  life  more  active  and  energetic 
than  it  had  been  in  the  past.     Nevertheless  there  was  no  less 
discontent  than  before.     This  was  especially  true  of  the  great 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  635 

body  of  the  working  classes.  There  were  many  evils  and  disad- 
vantages of  their  condition  which  they  fried  in  various  ways  to 
overcome.  Trade  unions  had  been  formed  from  an  early  period 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  but  they  were  illegal.  In  1824,  among 
the  other  emancipating  statutes  of  the  time,  the  laws  forbidding 
their  existence  were  repealed.  In  1825,  however,  parliament  felt 
that  it  had  gone  too  far,  withdrew  the  emancipating  law  of  the 
previous  year  and  passed  a  much  more  moderate  statute,  which 
only  legalized  trade  unions  in  a  few  of  their  aspects  and  under 
special  circumstances.  Nevertheless  they  continued  to  grow  and 
their  members  took  an  active  part  in  the  agitations  that  led  to  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1832.  In  1833  the  first  great  national  trade  union 
was  formed,  and  an  effort  was  made  to  introduce  an  eight-hour 
day.  The  strikes  for  this  purpose  were  unsuccessful  and  the 
efforts  to  present  great  petitions  to  parliament  and  to  hold  mon- 
ster meetings  of  workingmen  were  met  by  threats  to  use  military 
force  against  them,  and  by  the  prosecution  and  transportation 
of  a  group  of  country  laborers  under  an  old  statute  against  the 
taking  of  oaths.  The  trade-union  movement  had  a  temporary 
setback,  but  nevertheless  it  continued  to  spread  and  in  later 
years  received  legal  recognition  till  the  majority  of  workingmen 
in  most  of  the  higher  industries  were  organized  in  this  way. 

577.  Chartism.  — Many  of  the  leaders  of  the  workingmen  were 
not  satisfied  merely  to  form  unions  in  their  trades.  They  wished 
to  obtain  better  representation  in  parliament  for  the  mass  of  the 
people.  There  had  been  deep  disappointment  with  the  result  of 
the  Reform  Bill.  It  had  given  votes  only  to  the  upper  and 
middle  classes,  and  the  measures  which  had  been  passed  by  par- 
liament since  had  been  for  the  most  part  in  the  interest  of  those 
classes.  The  lower  classes  seemed  to  have  received  nothing  but 
the  more  rigorous  poor  law. 

The  increased  well-being  of  the  country  was  not  fairly  dis- 
tributed. There  was  still  much  hardship  and  dire  misery.  When 
bad  times  came  suffering  increased,  and  there  were  many  who 


636  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

felt  that  this  was  due  to  the  failure  of  parliament  to  pass  laws  in 
the  interest  of  the  whole  people.  The  agitation  that  had  died 
down  after  the  Reform  Bill  was  therefore  soon  renewed  and 
steadily  increased.  In  1837  at  a  conference  among  some  of  the 
more  radical  members  of  parliament  and  leaders  of  the  work- 
ingmen  the  "  People's  Charter "  was  drawn  up.  This  was  a 
declaration  in  favor  of  six  points  of  further  reform  :  (i)  uni- 
versal suffrage ;  (2)  a  newly  elected  parliament  every  year ;  (3) 
vote  by  secret  ballot ;  (4)  abolition  of  the  property  qualification 
required  of  members  of  parliament;  (5)  payment  of  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons ;  and  (6)  the  division  of  the  country  into 
electoral  districts  each  of  which  should  contain  the  same  number 
of  inhabitants. 

For  many  years  "The  Charter  "  was  the  watchword  of  the  dis- 
contented classes.  A  party  known  as  the  "  Chartists  "  was  formed, 
which  contained  but  few  voters  but  was  strong  in  numbers  and 
activity.  Newspapers  were  established,  pamphlets  published,  and 
mass  meetings  held.  More  than  once  Chartism  became  a  serious 
threat  to  the  government  and  prosecutions  were  brought  against 
its  leaders.  In  1839  and  1842  national  conventions  of  Chartist 
delegates  met  and  drew  up  petitions  to  parliament  for  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Charter,  signed  by  several  thousand  names.  Parlia- 
ment, however,  refused  to  consider  these  petitions  on  account  of 
the  disorderly  manner  in  which  they  were  presented.  In  1848 
there  was  a  great  meeting  of  twenty-five  thousand  Chartists  in 
London,  and  a  branch  who  called  themselves  "  Physical-force 
Chartists"  even  proposed  a  violent  attack  upon  the  government. 
But  trqops  were  brought  to  London  by  the  ministry  and  hundreds 
of  special  officers  were  sworn  in  to  prevent  the  petitioners 
approaching  the  parliament  house  in  any  threatening  numbers. 
A  great  petition  for  the  passage  of  the  Charter,  which  had  been 
long  prepared  and  which  was  said  to  have  five  million  signatures, 
was  presented  to  parliament  by  delegates  from  this  meeting. 
When  the  petition  was  examined,  however,  it  was  found  to  contain 


THE   PERIOD   OF  REFORM  637 

orlv  something  over  a  million  names  and  many  of  these  were 
fictitious.  The  same  name  was  often  repeated  twenty  or  more 
times ;  the  queen's  name  and  those  of  many  of  the  members  of  the 
House  of  Lords  and  other  well-known  opponents  of  Chartism  had 
been  signed  to  it  as  a  practical  joke,  and  even  names  of  characters 
from  the  popular  operas  appeared.  The  whole  affair  was  thrown 
into  ridicule  and  the  petition  rejected  amidst  laughter  and  without 
debate.  The  movement  had  reached  its  culmination  and  failed. 
Soon  afterwards  the  Chartist  party  broke  up  and  some  .of  its  more 
violent  members  were  prosecuted  and  punished  by  the  government. 

578.  Proposed  Repeal  of  the  Union  with  Ireland.  —  In  Ireland 
the  excitement  which  O'Connell  and  other  leaders  had  aroused 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  Catholic  emancipation  did  not  sub- 
side after  their  success  in  1829.  Very  soon  the  demand  arose 
that  the  union  between  England  and  Ireland  carried  by  such 
objectionable  means  in  1800  should  be  repealed.  All  the  familiar 
forms  of  agitation  were  made  use  of  by  those  who  desired  this 
action.  Immense  meetings  in  Ireland  at  which  the  people  were 
deeply  stirred  by  O'Connell's  wonderful  eloquence  were  particu- 
larly prominent;  but  no  English  party  gave  any  encouragement 
to  the  plan  of  repeal.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  union  had  been  originally  obtained,  it  was  now 
looked  upon  in  England  and  Scotland  as  an  absolutely  permanent 
settlement.  O'Connell  and  the  other  leaders  continued  to  organize 
their  immense  gatherings,  doubtless  wishing  to  impress  the  gov- 
ernment with  the  belief  that  they  could  throw  Ireland  into  civil  war 
at  any  time  if  they  wished,  and  so  gain  their  objects,  as  in  1829. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  a  rebellion  might  readily  have  been 
precipitated,  but  O'Connell  did  not  really  intend  to  put  the 
matter  to  the  test.  The  agitation  came  to  its  conclusion  in 
1843.  A  great  meeting  which  had  been  called  together  at  Clon- 
tarf,  an  historic  spot  made  famous  by  an  old  Irish  victory  over  the 
Danes,  was  prohibited  by  the  government  on  the  ground  of  prob- 
able disorder.  The  people  waited  for  the  word  of  O'Connell, 


638  A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

holding  themselves  ready  to  resist  if  he  so  ordered.  His  decision 
came  in  the  form  of  an  appeal  to  them  to  obey  the  government. 
They  did  so  and  separated  to  their  homes  before  the  meeting  was 
organized.  But  the  magic  of  their  leader's  influence  was  gone. 
The  people  had  believed  that  ultimately  they  were  to  fight  against 
the  English  government,  and  fejt  that  if  they  were  simply  to  obey 
that  government  blindly,  their  agitation  was  meaningless. 

579.  The  Rebellion  of  the  Young  Ireland  Party.  —  Nothing  was 
done  towards  repeal,  and  the  agitation  in  this  form  soon  after- 
wards died  away.    But  a  number  of  the  younger,  more  highly  edu- 
cated, and  enthusiastic  men  who  had  been  followers  of  O'Connell 
in  this  movement  now  broke  away  from  his  peaceful  influence 
and  formed  a  society  known  as  "Young  Ireland."     Their  object 
was  to  awaken  the  national  pride  and  sense  of  independence  of 
the  Irish  people,  then  to  gain  their  separation  from  England,  and 
finally  to  form  an  Irish  republic.     This  object  they  were  willing 
to  strive  for,  if  need  be,  by  rebellion.     Before  much  of  the  pre- 
paratory work  had  been  done,  however,  the  series  of  revolts  on 
the  continent  of  Europe  in  the  year  1848  set  them  an  irresis- 
tible example  and  they  were  drawn  into  a  foolish  and  hopeless 
outbreak.     Nothing  was  accomplished   except  the  capture  and 
punishment  by  transportation  of  the  most  active  of  the  leaders 
and  the  break-up  of  the  Young  Ireland  party. 

580.  The  Irish  Famine.  — The  most  serious  occurrence  in  the 
history  of  Ireland  during  this  period  was,  however,  not  a  voluntary 
matter,  but  a  terrible  catastrophe  due  to  natural  causes.     The 
custom  of  raising  potatoes  as  their  principal  crop  and  relying  on 
them  almost  entirely  for  food  had  grown  up  among  the  small 
farmers  who  formed  the  great  bulk  of  the  population.    More  food 
can  be  raised  to  the  acre  in  the  form  of  potatoes  than  in  the  form 
of  any  other  crop  which  will  grow  in  a  temperate  climate.     More 
than  a  majority  of  the  population  of  Ireland  lived  practically 
entirely  on  potatoes,  and  half  the  remainder  relied  on  them  for 
the  greater  part  of  their  diet.     This  was  a  condition  of  great 


THE    PERIOD   OF   REFORM  639 

risk.  If  anything  should  destroy  the  potato  crop,  the  people 
would  be  left  withouf  food. 

In  the  fall  of  1845  this  was  what  happened.  In  the  midst  of  a 
long  damp  spell  a  disease  attacked  the  potato  plants  and  within 
a  few  weeks  the  greater  part  of  the  crop  over  most  of  Ireland 
rotted  in  the  ground.  The  suffering  was  terrible  and  became  worse 
the  next  year  when  it  proved  that  the  disease  was  so  strongly 
intrenched  as  to  destroy  the  crop  a  second  time.  Great  efforts 
were  made  by  the  government  and  by  charitable  associations  to 
relieve  the  sufferings  of  the  famine-stricken  people.  Wheat  and 
Indian  corn  were  sent  from  America,  from  England,  and  from 
other  countries,  and  relief  work  on  roads  was  provided  by  the 
government  so  that  wages  could  be  earned.  Finally  soup  kitchens 
were  established  where  the  famine  was  worst  and  the  people  too 
sick,  poor,  and  weak  to  prepare  food  for  themselves.  But  with 
all  these  efforts  many  thousands  died  of  starvation  and  disease. 

A  great  movement  of  emigration  from  Ireland  to  America  and 
the  British  colonies  began  in  1846  and  has  continued  with  little 
abatement  ever  since.  It  has  gradually  reduced  the  population 
from  about  eight  millions  to  less  than  five  millions.  Ireland  is 
probably  the  only  country  in  the  world  which  has  lost  population 
during  the  last  half  century. 

581.  The  Corn-Law  League. — The  Irish  famine  brought  to  a 
head  a  discussion  which  had  long  been  in  progress  in  England. 
This  was  the  proposed  abolition  of  import  duties  on  grain,  or 
what  was  known  in  England  as  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws.1  For 
centuries  a  duty  had  been  placed  on  grain  imported  into  England  in 
order  to  encourage  its  production  by  enabling  the  English  farmer 
to  sell  his  products  at  a  good  price  and  to  avoid  being  undersold 
by  grain  brought  from  other  parts  of  the  world.  During  the  wars 
against  Napoleon  the  duty  had  been  increased.  But  as  England 

1  The  word  corn  in  England  when  used  without  any  further  description 
usually  means  wheat.  What  is  called  corn  in  America  is  not  very  largely 
used  in  England,  and  is  known  there  as  Indian  corn  or  maize. 


640  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

became  more  of  a  manufacturing  country,  not  enough  grain  was 
raised  to  feed  the  people  and  some  had  always  to  be  imported. 
The  corn  laws  now  seemed  less  reasonable,  as  they  simply  gave 
larger  profits  to  one  set  of  people,  the  farmers,  while  they  made 
all  other  classes  pay  more  for  their  food. 

By  this  time,  however,  the  rents  which  the  farmers  had  to  pay 
had  become  so  high  that  they  needed  large  profits  on  their  crops 
to  be  able  to  pay  them.  The  landlords  who  received  the  rent  in 
their  turn  bore  the  burden  of  the  enormous  taxes  for  the  poor, 
and  they  declared  that  they  needed  these  high  rents  in  order  to 
be  able  to  pay  the  taxes.  The  landlord  class  was  by  far  the  most 
influential  in  parliament,  and  men  of  that  class  were  not  likely 
except  under  great  pressure  to  change  the  laws  which  favored 
their  own  interests. 

In  1838  the  "Anti-Corn-Law  League"  was  formed  at  Man- 
chester in  the  center  of  the  manufacturing  district,  and  an  active 
movement  was  instituted  to  induce  parliament  to  remove  the  taxes 
from  grain.  Richard  Cobden  and  John  Bright  rose  to  fame  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  the  league.  They  were  both  mer- 
chants, both  gifted  with  great  ability  as  speakers,  and  strongly 
convinced  of  the  injustice  of  the  corn  laws  and  of  the  immense 
benefit  that  would  come  to  English  workingmen  if  their  food 
could  be  made  cheap.  With  these  men  and  others  as  leaders, 
pamphlets  and  newspapers  devoted  to  the  subject  were  showered 
over  the  country,  lecturers  were  trained  and  sent  into  every  town 
to  explain  the  principles  of  what  came  to  be  known  as  "  free 
trade."  "To  buy  in  the  cheapest  market  and  sell  in  the  dear- 
est" was  laid  down  as  a  general  right  and  a  general  principle  of 
action,  and  a  condition  of  the  law  under  which  this  could  be 
done  was  treated  as  the  ideal  to  which  legislation  should  approach. 

A  great  part  of  the  people  were  gradually  converted  to  these 
principles  and  to  the  belief  that  the  old  system  of  duties  ought 
to  be  abolished.  But  not  so  much  impression  was  made  on  par- 
liament. Every  year  some  advocate  would  introduce  a  measure 


THE   PERIOD   OF  REFORM  641 

for  the  repeal  of  the  duties,  but  it  was  always  voted  down  by  a 
majority  that  it  seemed  impossible  to  overcome.  Eventually 
Cobden  and  Bright  became  members  of  parliament  and  pleaded 
for  their  views  there,  others  took  up  the  cause,  one  by  one 
prominent  members  of  the  Liberal  party  and  even  some  of  the 
Conservatives  accepted  their  principles,  and  it  began  to  seem 
that  at  some  time  or  other  the  corn  laws  would  be  abolished. 
The  Irish  famine  suddenly  brought  the  matter  to  an  issue.  It 
seemed  absurd  to  be  charging  heavy  import  duties  to  keep  out 
grain  when  it  was  so  sadly  needed  to  relieve  starvation  within  the 
country.  In  1846,  therefore,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  Conservative 
prime  minister,  introduced  and  against  much  opposition  carried 
through  a  measure  for  the  abolition  of  the  duties  on  wheat  and 
other  grain.  This  action  allowed  the  principal  food  of  the  people 
to  be  brought  into  England  far  more  cheaply  than  before,  reduced 
the  price  of  the  grain  that  was  grown  at  home,  and  made  bread 
cheap  for  the  working  classes. 

582 .  Introduction  of  Free  Trade.  —  With  the  corn  laws  went 
other  forms  of  protection.  Even  before  this  abolition  Peel,  who 
had  become  converted  to  the  entire  system  of  free  trade,  had 
been  instrumental  in  removing  all  duties  on  exports  and  diminish- 
ing or  abolishing  the  duties  on  certain  imports.  The  high  duties 
on  sugar  imposed  for  the  benefit  of  the  sugar-growing  British 
West  Indies  were  reduced  the  same  year  that  the  corn  laws  were 
swept  away.  The  Navigation  Acts  which  had  come  down  from 
the  seventeenth  century  as  a  means  of  preserving  English  com- 
merce to  English  ships  were  abolished  in  1849,  the  vessels  of  all 
other  nations  being  now  allowed  to  come  into  and  go  out  of  Eng- 
lish ports  on  the  same  conditions  as  vessels  owned  in  England. 
Within  a  few  years,  between  1846  and  1849,  protective  duties 
were  removed  from  some  two  hundred  articles  which  had  before 
been  taxed.  England  thus  gave  up  entirely  her  old  policy  of 
protection  and  established  free  trade  in  all  articles  of  import  and 
export.  Only  a  few  small  import  duties  have  since  been  collected 


642  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

for  purposes  of  revenue.  In  1852  a  formal  vote  was  taken  in 
the  House  of  Commons  by  which  four  hundred  and  sixty- eight 
members,  including  Conservatives  as  well  as  Liberals,  expressed 
their  approval  of  the  principles  of  free  trade,  against  fifty- three 
who  still  opposed  those  principles.  Since  that  time  England  has 
been  distinctly  a  free-trade  country.  No  measure  which  is  based 
in  any  degree  on  the  principle  of  protection  to  any  branch  of 
industry  has  had  up  to  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  any 
chance  of  being  adopted. 

583.  The  Crystal  Palace  Exhibition  of  1851.  —  England  was 
able  to  take  this  position  because  she  was  in  advance  of  all  other 
European  countries  in  commerce,  manufactures,  and  agriculture. 
To  display  to  her  own  people  and  to  those  of  other  nations  the 

kill 


Crystal  Palace 

fruits  of  this  progress,  and  to  induce  foreigners  to  bring  their 
productions  to  England  for  purposes  of  comparison  and  obser- 
vation, the  International  Exhibition  of  1851  was  organized.  It 
was  first  suggested  by  Prince  Albert,  and  his  constant  efforts  and 
great  influence  were  needed  to  keep  up  the  interest  in  the  proj- 
ect and  carry  it  into  execution.  He  well  explained  its  object  in 
a  public  speech  as  being  intended  "  to  give  the  world  a  true  test, 
a  living  picture,  of  the  point  of  industrial  development  at  which 
the  whole  of  mankind  has  arrived,  and  a  new  starting  point 
from  which  all  nations  will  be  able  to  direct  their  further  exer- 
tions." It  was  the  first  of  the  series  of  world's  expositions  in 
various  countries  which  have  been  so  numerous  in  the  last  half 
century.  It  was  held  in  a  large  building  of  iron  and  glass  known 
as  the  "  Crystal  Palace,"  erected  in  Hyde  Park,  in  the  center 


THE   PERIOD    OF   REFORM  643 

of  the  city  of  London,  and  it  brought  together  the  productions 
of  nature,  manufacture,  and  art  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  It 
was  a  great  success  in  every  way.  It  not  only  paid  all  its  expenses 
but  also  left  a  surplus  which  was  used  for  the  foundation  of  the 
South  Kensington  Museum  and  Art  Schools.  It  was  visited  by 
more  than  six  million  people  and  awakened  general  interest  and 
admiration  both  from  Englishmen  and  foreigners.  From  it  much 
was  at  the  time  hoped  for  in  the  perpetuation  of  peace  and  the 
substitution  of  rivalry  in  trade  for  rivalry  in  war,  but  this  has 
unfortunately  not  been  justified. 

584.  Summary  of  the  Period  1815-1852. — The  peace  which 
had  now  lasted  for  almost  forty  years  was  a  longer  period  of  ex- 
emption from  war  than  England  had  experienced  for  centuries. 
It  made  possible  the  devotion  of  attention  to  internal  questions 
and  a  general  settling  up  of  many  old  matters  of  complaint.  No 
period,  therefore,  has  seen  changes  of  more  fundamental  and  more 
permanent  importance  than  this.  The  most  significant  of  these 
changes  consisted  in  the  transfer  of  control  of  the  government  from 
the  aristocracy  to  the  middle  classes  by  means  of  the  Reform  Bill 
of  1832.  The  adoption  of  that  measure  made  a  great  break  with 
the  past  and  made  all  later  changes  easier.  Reforms  that  could 
never  have  been  brought  about  under  the  old  form  of  parliament 
were  now  carried  out  in  rapid  sequence.  Not  only  those  which 
have  been  described,  such  as  the  abolition  of  slavery,  the  factory 
laws,  and  the  repeal  of  the  corn  laws,  but  also  a  vast  number  of 
minor  reforms,  were  achieved.  In  1835  the  custom  of  forcing 
men  into  service  in  the  navy  was  abolished  ;  in  1840  the  practice 
of  sending  boys  up  chimneys  for  the  purpose  of  sweeping  them 
out  was  forbidden;  in  1848  the  first  "public  health"  act  was 
adopted  and  a  beginning  made  in  the  improvement  of  sanitary 
conditions  and  the  establishment  of  parks  in  the  crowded  cities 
of  modern  times.  Men  began  to  look  at  public  questions  in  a 
different  way,  and  the  duty  of  parliament  to  make  laws  for  the 
benefit  of  the  whole  people  was  practically  recognized. 


644  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

General  Reading.  —  GREEN,  Short  History,  ceases  to  be  of  value  in  this 
period.  MCCARTHY,  The  Epoch  of  Reform  (Epochs  of  Modern  History), 
is  a  good  short  account  of  the  reforms.  WALPOLE,  History  of  England 
since  1813,  6  vols.,  is  the  fullest  account  of  the  period.  MCCARTHY,  History 
of  Our  Own  Times,  3  vols.  This  work  begins  in  1837,  at  the  accession  of 
Queen  Victoria,  its  first  volume  covering  the  period  of  the  latter  part  of 
this  chapter.  It  is  the  most  interesting  and  vivacious  account  of  the  period. 
MOLESWORTH,  History  of  England  since  1830,  gives  the  fullest  account  of 
the  Reform  Bill  struggle  of  any  of  the  general  histories.  PAUL,  History 
of  Modern  England,  is  a  new  work  in  course  of  publication  beginning  with 
the  year  1846.  Among  the  best  of  the  many  biographies  of  prime  minis- 
ters and  other  influential  men  are  THURSFIELD,  Peel  (English  Statesmen 
series);  MORLEY,  Cobden ;  STAPLETON,  Canning;  SANDERS,  Palmerston ; 
DUNCKLEY,  Melbourne. 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  The  debates  in  parliament  and  the  laws  that 
were  passed  during  this  period  are  accessible  but  they  are  mostly  very 
voluminous.  The  larger  histories  of  the  time  give  long  quotations  from 
the  speeches,  and  much  of  the  real  history  of  the  period  is  to  be  found 
in  the  contemporary  literature,  such  as  essays,  speeches,  novels,  and  poetry. 
The  collected  speeches  of  Lord  Ashley,  earl  of  Shaftesbury,  are  particularly 
valuable.  Interesting  extracts  concerning  the  Manchester  Massacre,  the 
Reform  Bill,  and  the  duke  of  Wellington  are  given  in  COLBY,  Selections 
from  the  Sources,  Nos.  113,  116,  and  117.  The  acts  of  1828  and  1829 
granting  religious  equality,  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  and  the  act  for  the 
abolition  of  slavery  are  given  in  ADAMS  and  STEPHENS,  Select  Documents, 
Nos.  260-264.  Some  speeches  and  notes  concerning  the  reform  move- 
ment and  a  valuable  Chartist  petition  are  given  in  KENDALL,  Source-Book, 
Nos.  129-131.  A  number  of  documents  of  the  emancipation  and  reform 
periods  are  given  in  LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  210-224. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  KINGSLEY,  Yeast  and  Alton  Locke  ;  the  first  deals 
with  rural  conditions,  the  second  with  the  Chartist  movement.  GEORGE 
ELIOT,  Silas  Marner  and  Felix  Holt,  the  Radical ;  DISRAELI,  Sybil,  or  The 
Two  Nations.  Several  of  the  novels  of  DICKENS  illustrate  the  general 
reforming  interests  and  efforts  of  the  period,  especially  Oliver  Twist  and 
Bleak  House.  Among  the  many  poems  which  illustrate  events  or  charac- 
ters of  the  time,  some  of  the  best  are  TENNYSON,  Ode  on  the  Death  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  Dedication  of  the  Idylls  of  the  King,  Rizpah  ;  and  many 
others,  like  Locksley  Hall,  which  refer  to  social  conditions ;  Mrs.  BROWN- 
ING, The  Young  Queen,  Victoria's  Tears,  Crowned  and  Wedded,  The  Cry 
of  the  Children ;  THOMAS  COOPER,  W.  J.  Fox,  WILLIAM  MORRIS,  and 
CHARLES  MACKAY,  various  Chartist  songs  and  poems. 


THE   PERIOD   OF   REFORM  645 

Special  Topics.  — (i)  The  Great  Writers  of  the  Early  Part  of  the 
Period,  GARDINER,  A  Student's  History  of  England,  pp.  887-890 ;  (2)  Great 
Writers  of  the  Latter  Part  of  the  Period,  MCCARTHY,  History  of  Our  Own 
Times,  Vol.  I,  chap,  xxix;  (3)  Daniel  O'Connell,  ibid.,  chap,  xii;  (4)  The 
Young  Ireland  Party,  ibid.,  chap,  xviii;  (5)  Factory  Laws,  CHEYNEY,  Indus- 
trial History,  pp.  244-260 ;  (6)  Trade  Unions,  ibid.,  pp.  277-293 ;  (7)  Dis- 
appearance of  the  English  Yeomen,  TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  VI, 
pp.  75-83;  (8)  Religious  Conditions  in  the  Middle  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  ibid.,  pp.  133-150;  (9)  The  Introduction  of  Railways,  ibid., 
pp.  199-210;  (10)  The  Army  and  Navy  in  the  Middle  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  ibid.,  pp.  120-133  and  262-273. 


CHAPTER  XX 
THE  GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY.     1852-1904 

585.  The  Crimean  War. — Soon  after  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury England's  long  period  of  peace  came  to  an  end  and  questions 
of  internal  policy  gave  place  in  public  attention  for  a  while  to  the 
problems  of  a  serious  foreign  war.  The  War  of  the  Crimea,  into 
which  England  was  now  drawn  as  an  ally  of  Turkey  and  France 
against  Russia,  arose  from  the  general  condition  of  affairs  in  east- 
ern Europe.  Russia  and  Turkey  were  ancient  enemies,  between 
whom  conflicts  had  broken  out  time  and  again.  Russia  had  now 
become  so  strong  and  Turkey  so  weak  that  there  was  danger  that 
Russia  would  at  some  time  seize  all  the  remaining  possessions  of 
her  rival  in  the  eastern  Mediterranean.  If  Russia  should  possess 
Constantinople,  the  entrance  to  the  Black  Sea,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Syria,  along  with  her  other  dominions,  her  power  would  be  so 
great  that  England  might  find  her  road  to  India  closed  and  the 
other  countries  of  Europe  made  powerless  to  resist  the  over- 
grown might  of  the  Slavonic  Empire.  It  had  therefore  become 
the  interest  and  the  policy  of  the  western  nations  of  Europe,  and 
especially  of  England,  to  support  Turkey  and  prevent  any  aggres- 
sion upon  her  by  Russia. 

In  1853  new  disputes  broke  out  between  the  two  eastern 
powers  which  led  to  the  invasion  of  Turkish  territory  by  Russia 
and  the  destruction  of  the  Turkish  fleet  in  one  of  the  Black  Sea 
ports.  England  and  France  thereupon  in  1854  allied  themselves 
with  Turkey  and  declared  war  on  Russia.  The  war  soon  centered 
at  the  great  Russian  fortress  of  Sebastopol,  in  the  Crimea,  a  long 
promontory  jutting  out  from  the  north  coast  of  the  Black  Sea. 

646 


THE   GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY  647 

Here  English  and  French  troops  were  gathered,  a  naval  force 
concentrated,  and  a  strong  effort  made  to  capture  the  fortifica- 
tions and  destroy  the  base  of  Russia's  power. 

Sebastopol  proved  to  be  almost  impregnable,  and  the  allied 
armies  finally  settled  down  to  a  siege  that  lasted  through  the 
whole  of  one  bitter  winter  and  most  of  the  next  summer.  Before 
the  siege  was  begun  and  during  its  continuance  there  were  several 
hard-fought  battles  with  the  Russian  armies  which  opposed  the 
landing  of  the  allied  troops  and  tried  repeatedly  to  raise  the  siege. 
One  of  the  battles,  that  of  Balaclava,  fought  in  October,  1854,  was 
the  occasion  of  the  famous  "  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade."  1  The 
general  in  command,  seeing  from  his  elevated  position  the  Russians 
carrying  off  a  small  battery  of  cannon,  sent  orders  to  have  them 
recaptured.  This  order  was  misunderstood  by  those  who  could 
not  see  so  well,  a  dispute  occurred,  an  officer  lost  his  temper,  and 
finally  an  order  was  given  for  the  light  brigade  of  cavalry,  consist- 
ing of  six  hundred  and  seventy-three  men,  to  charge  a  Russian 
battery  at  the  end  of  a  long  valley  and  in  a  position  where  its 
cannon  could  not  be  held  even  if  captured.  With  wonderful 
coolness  and  bravery  the  cavalry  rode  off  on  their  hopeless  mis- 
sion. Through  a  valley  two  miles  long,  subjected  to  a  steady  fire 
from  Russian  artillery  on  both  sides,  they  rode  up  to  the  fortifica- 
tions and  then  returned,  losing  two  hundred  and  forty-seven  men, 
or  almost  one  half  their  number.  "  It  is  magnificent,  but  it  is  not 
war,"  said  a  French  officer  as  he  watched  them  from  a  hill. 

During  the  winter  of  1854-1855  the  sufferings  of  the  English 
in  their  camp  before  the  fortified  city  were  terrible.  The  long 
period  of  peace  which  England  had  enjoyed  since  the  battle  of 
Waterloo  had  left  the  army  badly  disorganized.  The  food  sent 
to  it  during  the  siege  was  insufficient  and  slow  in  arriving ;  there 
were  few  army  nurses  and  the  hospitals  were  poorly  managed ; 
useless  red  tape  prevented  different  departments  working  together 
and  delayed  the  distribution  of  supplies  even  after  they  reached 
1  The  subject  of  Tennyson's  well-known  poem. 


648  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  Crimea.  The  officers,  although  brave  in  battle,  showed  poor 
judgment  in  managing  the  campaign  and  the  siege.  The  unavoid- 
able evils  of  climate  and  distance  were  added  to  those  of  misman- 
agement. The  winter  was  a  cold  one,  cholera  broke  out  in  the 
camp,  and  almost  half  the  army  was  carried  off  by  this  and  other 
diseases. 

All  these  sufferings  of  the  soldiers  and  blunders  of  the  army 
authorities  were  reported  in  the  home  newspapers,  this  being  the 
first  war  in  which  regular  war  correspondents  were  sent  to  the 
field.  The  tide  of  popular  condemnation  of  the  government  rose 
higher  and  higher,  until  finally  the  coalition 
ministry  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  under  which  the 
war  had  been  entered  upon,  was  forced  to  resign 
and  Lord  Palmerston  became  prime  minister. 

Under  the  new  ministry  energy  was  infused 
into    the   war   operations   and    improvements 
were  introduced  into  the  military  administra- 
tion.    Miss  Florence  Nightingale  was  sent  out 
to  Constantinople  as  superintendent  of  a  group 
The  Victoria  Cross,   of  volunteer  women  nurses.     She  proved   to 
instituted  in  1857  have  great  ability  and  good  judgment  and  suc- 
for  Personal  Acts  ceedeci  jn  introducing  system  and  good  man- 
agement into  the  hospitals,  as  well  as  giving 
untold  personal  comfort  and  consolation  to  the 
miserable  soldiers  suffering  from  sickness  and  wounds.    By  the 
spring  months  of  1855  conditions  had  improved  and  in  the  fall 
of  that  year  Sebastopol  finally  fell.     In  1856  a  peace  was  signed 
at  Paris  by  which  all  captures  made  during  the  war  were  restored, 
ships  of  war  of  all  nations  were  excluded  from  the  Black  Sea, 
Russia  agreed  not  to  fortify  Sebastopol,  the  Danube  River  was 
opened  to  free  navigation,  and  a  guarantee  of  good  treatment  of 
her  Christian  subjects  was  given  by  Turkey.    The  one  great  point 
gained  by  England  was  the  check  placed  at  that  time  upon  the 
advance  of  Russia ;  but  even  this  has  not  been  finally  effective. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY       649 

In  the  long  run  the  war  does  not  seem  to  have  accomplished 
much.  In  1870  Russia  declared  that  she  did  not  any  longer  in- 
tend to  be  bound  by  the  Black  Sea  clause,  and  she  has  since  estab- 
lished a  powerful  fleet  there  and  rebuilt  and  fortified  Sebastopol. 

586.  Affairs  in  India. — The  Crimean  War  was  hardly  over 
when  England  had  to  face  another  conflict  which  in  many  ways 
came  even  nearer  home  to  her,  and  which  threatened  the  pos- 
session of  her  greatest  dependency.  The  progress  of  English 
dominion  in  India  had  been  one  of  steady  acquisition  of  control 
over  the  native  states.  Soon  after  the  time  of  Clive  another  great 
governor,  Warren  Hastings,  whose  administration  extended  from 
1773  to  1785,  by  a  series  of  extensions  of  the  influence  of  the 
East  India  Company,  brought  a  great  part  of  northern  and  central 
India  under  its  direct  government.  His  despotic  and  oppressive 
actions  against  the  native  princes  led  to  his  impeachment  by 
parliament  in  1788,  but  he  was  finally  acquitted  and  his  acqui- 
sitions of  territory  were  retained  by  the  company.  In  1784 
parliament  passed  a  law  placing  the  control  of  the  political 
affairs  of  India  in  the  hands  of  a  branch  of  the  English  minis- 
try, leaving  commercial  affairs  still  in  the  unrestricted  charge  of 
the  company. 

During  the  war  against  Napoleon,  French  influence  led  to 
much  greater  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  native  princes.  The 
English,  however,  carried  on  several  successful  wars  and  enforced 
a  system  of  alliances  by  which  several  of  the  native  rulers  who 
were  still  reigning  were  allowed  to  carry  on  their  internal  affairs 
to  suit  themselves,  but  were  each  forced  to  receive  an  English 
resident  who  should  direct  foreign  affairs.  These  were  called 
"  protected  "  states,  or  states  "  in  dependent  alliance."  After 
1815  there  were  a  number  of  small  wars  in  India  by  which 
either  direct  control  or  dependent  alliances  were  forced  upon 
the  natives,  and  British  influence  was  carried  all  the  way  to  the 
northern  and  western  borders.  Between  1815  and  1856  there 
were  nine  separate  wars  of  this  description. 


650  A   SHORT    HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

587.  The  Sepoy  Rebellion.  —  Many  of  the  inhabitants  of  India 
were  dissatisfied  with  English  rule,  but  it  was  not  supposed  that 
any  widespread  rebellious  feeling  existed  until  suddenly  in  1857  the 
sepoy  mutiny  broke  out.  The  native  troops  in  the  English  service 
rose  first  at  Meerut,  refused  to  obey  their  officers,  marched  to  Delhi, 
where  they  were  joined  by  three  other  regiments  of  sepoys,  and  put 
a  descendant  of  the  old  Moguls  on  the  throne,  thus  trying  to  make 
the  rising  a  national  movement.  Soon  at  almost  every  military 
station  in  the  north  of  India  a  similar  mutiny  had  taken  place 
and  the  whole  country  was  in  the  hands  of  the  mutineers.  The 
native  troops  and  populace  attacked  the  English  officers,  soldiers, 
officials,  and  merchants  together  with  their  families,  and  massacred 

men,  women,  and 
children.  Delhi, 
Lucknow,  and 
Cawnpore  were 
the  most  impor- 
tant centers  of  the 

revolt.    It  did  not 

Small  Coin  struck  in  a  Native  Mint  under  d    .^    the 

English  Protection 

districts  of  Madras 

and  Bombay,  nor  into  the  newly  annexed  district  of  the  Punjab, 
but  for  a  few  weeks  in  June,  July,  and  August,  1857,  all  northern 
India  seemed  to  have  fallen  again  into  the  possession  of  the  native 
races.  The  English  were  either  suffering  siege  and  massacre 
or,  scattered  in  small  bodies,  were  confronting  masses  of  revolted 
native  soldiers  vastly  superior  in  numbers. 

Yet  the  courage  and  the  discipline  of  these  bodies  of  English 
troops  and  the  vigor  and  skill  of  their  officers  rapidly  won  back 
the  territories  that  had  been  lost.  A  body  of  a  few  hundred  in 
one  place  and  a  small  army  of  a  few  thousand  in  another 
defeated  the  mutinous  sepoys  in  engagement  after  engagement. 
English  troops  were  brought  from  the  loyal  districts,  and  others 
who  were  on  their  way  to  China  were  turned  aside  to  India  when 


"^     ,'  -1  V^--- 


INDIA 

at  the 
Sepoy  Rebellion 


THE   GROWTH    OF   DEMOCRACY  651 

they  reached  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Although  in  many  cases 
these  were  too  late  to  save  the  English  women  and  children  from 
being  massacred  under  the  most  terrible  circumstances,  yet  in 
other  cases  they  came  in  time  to  succor  the  survivors  and  pre- 
vent further  attacks  from  the  rebels.  In  putting  down  the  revolt 
the  English  inflicted  severe  punishment  upon  the  mutineers.  All 
who  were  suspected  of  participating  in  the  massacres  were  put  to 
death  as  ruthlessly  and  often  with  scarcely  less  cruelty  than  they 
had  themselves  used.  Many  were  shot  from  the  mouth  of  cannon.1 
Others  after  surrender  were  shot  down  in  cold  blood  by  English 
officers.  Before  the  end  of  the  next  year,  1858,  the  revolt  was 
completely  stamped  out. 

588.  The  Empire  of  India.  —  In  England  the  occurrence  of 
the  mutiny  turned  attention  to  the  form  of  government  of  India. 
It  was  felt  to  be  unreasonable  that  a  great  part  of  the  British 
Empire,  with  many  millions  of  people,  should  be  governed  so 
largely  by  the  East  India  Company,  a  commercial  organization. 
A  bill  was  therefore  passed  in  1858  transferring  the  sovereignty 
and  territory  of  the  East  India  Company  to  Queen  Victoria.  A 
secretary  of  state  for  India  was  created,  who  is  a  member  of  the 
cabinet,  and  the  governor  general's  title  changed  to  that  of  viceroy. 
The  company  remained  in  existence,  but  only  as  a  voluntary 
trading  association  carrying  on  commerce  with  India  and  having 
no  share  in  its  government  and  no  monopoly  of  its  trade. 

Since  the  mutiny  some  of  the  protected  states  have  come 
directly  under  British  control,  and  two  or  three  frontier  districts, 
including  the  whole  of  Burma,  have  been  either  annexed  or 
placed  in  the  position  of  dependent  states.  Comparatively  little 
fighting  has  been  necessary  for  this  purpose,  although  a  large  army 
of  sepoys  with  English  officers  and  a  number  of  English  regiments 

1  This  was  a  form  of  punishment  in  which  the  victim  was  bound  against 
the  muzzle  of  a  cannon  which  was  then  discharged.  It  was  especially 
terrible  to  the  Hindoos,  who  for  religious  reasons  dread  the  destruction  of 
the  body. 


652  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

have  been  kept  up.  The  British  dominion  in  India  is  in  the  main 
a  great,  peaceful  administration  carried  on  by  about  one  hundred 
thousand  soldiers,  officials,  merchants,  missionaries,  and  others  of 
English  race,  including  women  and  children.  Their  power  is  exer- 
cised over  some  three  hundred  millions  of  the  various  native  races ; 
that  is  to  say,  there  are  about  three  thousand  natives  to  one  person 
of  English  birth  in  India.  It  was  desired  by  the  government  to 
express  in  the  title  of  the  English  sovereign  this  relation  of  Eng- 
land to  India.  The  title  formerly  held  by  the  sovereigns  of  Delhi 
was  therefore  revived,  and  in  1876  parliament  passed  an  act  add- 
ing to  the  other  titles  of  Queen  Victoria  that  of  "  Empress  of 
India."  January  i,  1877,  she  was  proclaimed  ruler  of  India  under 
that  title  at  Delhi  and  in  every  province  of  India. 

589.  Petty  Wars. — England  was  not  engaged  only  in  the 
Crimean  War  and  the  great  struggle  in  India.  Her  widespread 
colonial  dominions  have  brought  her  into  contact  with  so  many 
nations  and  barbarous  races  that  she  has  been  drawn  constantly 
into  wars  of  small  extent  in  which  her  overwhelming  strength 
left  no  possible  doubt  of  the  result,  but  which  have  nevertheless 
been  expensive  in  money  and  lives  and  have  been  opposed  by 
the  moral  feelings  of  the  country.  In  1840  and  1842  there  were 
such  wars  with  Egypt,  Afghanistan,  and  China.  The  last  of 
these  is  known  as  the  "  Opium  War,"  because  the  original  dis- 
pute arose  in  connection  with  an  effort  on  the  part  of  China  to 
prevent  the  importation  of  opium  into  her  dominions.  The 
opium  trade  was  carried  on  by  British  merchants  and  by  others 
under  British  protection ;  and  the  poppy  from  which  the  opium 
is  derived  was  one  of  the  most  profitable  products  of  British 
India.  Therefore,  although  the  dispute  arose  in  an  effort  to 
prevent  insult  to  the  British  flag,  it  resulted  in  forcing  the  opium 
traffic  upon  China  in  favor  of  English  commerce.  Although 
there  was  no  clear  settlement  of  the  opium  question  its  importa- 
tion into  China  continued.  As  a  further  result  of  this  war  a 
number  of  Chinese  ports  were  opened  to  commerce.  Another 


THE  GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY       653 

war  broke  out  with  China  in  1856  and  continued  till  1858,  when 
a  treaty  was  made  which  carried  still  farther  the  opening  of 
China  to  trade  and  intercourse  with  Europeans.  Still  a  third  war 
occurred  in  1860.  In  1862  there  was  a  short  war  with  Japan. 
Between  that  year  and  1878  there  were  similar  petty  wars  with 
Ashantee,  Abyssinia,  Afghanistan,  the  Maoris  of  New  Zealand,  and 
the  Kaffirs  and  Zulus  of  South  Africa.  A  still  greater  conflict  was 
by  that  time  threatening  in  South  Africa,  but  its  discussion  can 
be  better  left  till  later. 

590.  The  Civil  War  in  America. — The  civil  war  in  America 
exercised  a  strong  influence  on  England.  The  sympathies  of  the 
upper  classes  were  on  the  whole  with  the  South.  The  southern 
type  of  society  and  manner  of  life  in  America  were  much  like 
those  of  the  landed  aristocracy  of  England.  Commerce  also 
drew  England  and  the  southern  states  closely  together,  many 
goods  of  English  manufacture  being  taken  to  that  part  of  the 
United  States,  and  large  amounts  of  cotton  being  brought  thence 
to  England.  Relations  had  never  been  very  cordial  between  the 
English  and  American  governments  and  there  had  been  frequent 
disputes  on  boundary  and  other  questions.  The  civil  war,  for 
which  the  government  at  Washington  was  held  responsible, 
brought  heavy  loss  to  England.  The  southern  ports  were  block- 
aded by  the  national  government  and  English  goods  could  not 
be  taken  into  them  as  usual  to  be  sold,  nor  could  the  cotton 
which  was  so  necessary  as  raw  material  for  the  English  factories 
be  obtained  from  thence. 

The  danger  was  therefore  very  grave  that  the  sympathy  of  the 
English  government  with  the  South  and  its  anger  at  the  North 
would  bring  about  a  war  with  the  United  States.  At  the  very 
beginning  of  the  war  an  incident  occurred  which  almost  precipi- 
tated this  calamity.  Two  southerners,  Mason  and  SI  id  ell,  who 
were  sent  to  represent  the  Confederate  government  in  England 
and  France  respectively,  made  their  way  to  Havana  and  there 
embarked  on  an  English  vessel  for  Europe.  On  their  voyage  they 


654  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

were  overtaken  by  an  American  war  ship  which  insisted  on  exer- 
cising the  right  of  search  and  finally  seized  the  two  southern  repre- 
sentatives and  carried  them  off  to  New  York.  The  English 
government  immediately  demanded  their  release  and  apologies  for 
the  indignity  shown  to  the  British  flag.  When  the  President  hes- 
itated to  yield  to  this  claim,  troops  were  sent  from  England  to 
Canada  and  all  preparations  made  for  war.  The  United  States, 
however,  gave  way,  acknowledged  that  the  commander  of  their 
vessel  had  done  wrong,  and  placed  the  southern  commissioners 
again  on  an  English  vessel. 

This  crisis  was  passed,  but  others  arose  from  time  to  time.  The 
English  government  issued  a  proclamation  of  neutrality  warning 
its  subjects  to  take  no  part  in  the  contest  on  either  side.  Although 
this  seemed  fair  the  North  felt  that  it  was  an  approach  towards 
the  recognition  of  the  South  as  a  separate  power  and  resented  it 
deeply.  The  cotton  famine  in  Lancashire,  where  most  of  the  fac- 
tories were  located,  became  the  cause  of  great  suffering.  The  cot- 
ton mills  were  almost  all  closed,  thousands  of  laborers  were  thrown 
out  of  work,  and  many  manufacturers  failed.  There  was  constant 
pressure  on  the  government  to  acknowledge  the  southern  states 
as  an  independent  nation.  This  would  have  enabled  England 
to  open  trade  and  intercourse  with  the  South,  though  it  would  of 
course  have  led  to  war  with  the  United  States.  Yet  the  govern- 
ment preserved  its  neutrality,  though  its  friendliness  to  the  South 
was  apparent.  One  form  which  this  took  was  the  very  slight  effort 
made  to  prevent  the  building  of  southern  cruisers  in  English  ports. 
Several  such  vessels  were  built  and  launched  in  England.  They 
were  met  afterwards  at  sea  by  southern  commanders,  equipped  in 
other  ports  or  countries,  and  proceeded  to  destroy  many  northern 
merchant  ships.  The  most  striking  case  of  this  kind  was  that  of 
the  "Alabama,"  built  at  Liverpool  in  1862  and  allowed  to  sail,  not- 
withstanding the  protests  of  the  representatives  of  the  American 
government.  The  responsibility  of  the  English  government  in 
some  of  these  cases  was  so  evident  that  when  the  claims  made 


THE   GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY  655 

for  losses  by  the  United  States  were  after  long  negotiations 
referred  in  1872  to  an  international  tribunal  sitting  at  Geneva, 
Switzerland,  the  decision  was  given  in  favor  of  America,  and  Eng- 
land was  ordered  to  pay  to  that  country  a  sum  of  $15,500,000. 

On  the  whole,  however,  the  government  kept  faithfully  to  its 
principle  of  neutrality,  and  this  against  much  pressure  at  home 
and  provocation  abroad.  The  great  mass  of  the  laborers  in  the 
cotton-manufacturing  districts,  who  because  of  the  closing  of  the 
factories  were  in  reality  the  greatest  sufferers  from  the  war,  bore 
their  privations  with  patience  and  self-control.  In  contrast  with 
the  upper  classes  they  were  almost  unanimously  in  sympathy 
with  the  North,  because  they  looked  upon  the  war  as  a  contest 
for  the  destruction  of  slavery.  This  made  their  endurance  easier 
to  them,  and  liberal  donations  of  money,  food,  and  clothing  from 
all  classes  helped  to  tide  over  the  difficult  period  till  the  war  came 
to  an  end  in  1865. 

591 .  Lord  Palmerston.  — The  prime  minister  during  this  period, 
and  the  most  prominent  minister  of  England  for  many  years,  was 
Lord  Palmerston.  He  was  one  of  those  men  who  had  been  orig- 
inally moderate  Tories  under  the  influence  of  Canning,  but  who  had 
afterwards  drifted  into  the  Liberal  party  during  the  agitation  for 
the  first  Reform  Bill.  His  service  as  minister  in  Tory  cabinets  had 
extended  from  1809  to  1830  ;  afterwards  as  foreign  secretary  and 
then  as  prime  minister  he  was  an  influential  member  of  almost 
every  Liberal  cabinet  for  thirty-five  years,  till  his  death  in  1865. 
He  had  always  adopted  a  high  tone  in  foreign  affairs,  and  many 
of  the  foreign  disputes  into  which  England  had  been  drawn  were 
largely  a  consequence  of  his  policy.  He  had  usually  been  able  to 
win  success  for  his  party  and  his  country  in  these  contests,  and  he 
had  thus  become  extremely  popular  and  influential.  To  one  object 
to  which  the  Liberal  party  was  becoming  more  devoted,  however, 
he  was  steadily  opposed.  This  was  the  further  reform  of  parlia- 
ment on  the  lines  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  He  believed  that 
the  form  of  government  established  at  that  time  should  be  final 


656  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  opposed  actively  or  passively  any  efforts  made  to  change  it. 
He  was  in  fact  far  more  deeply  interested  in  questions  of  external 
than  of  internal  policy,  and  so  long  as  he  lived  the  party  which  he 
led  reflected  this  feeling. 

592.  Gladstone  and  the  Revival  of  Parliamentary  Reform.— 
Many  other  prominent  men  in  the  Liberal  party,  although  they 
had  refused  for  many  years  after  1832  to  agree  to  any  further 
reform  and  had  opposed  the  efforts  of  the  Chartists,  came  in  time 
to  believe  that  the  right  of  voting  should  be  extended  more  widely 
and  that  the  districts  which  were  represented  should  be  made 
more  nearly  equal.  This  agitation  began  about  185  2.  The  leader 
who  best  represented  these  views  and  who  was-  most  influential  in 
carrying  out  further  reforms  was  William  Ewart  Gladstone.  Mr. 
Gladstone,  who  served  altogether  for  more  than  sixty  years  in  par- 
liament, entered  the  House  of  Commons  in  1833,  the  year  after 
the  adoption  of  the  first  Reform  Bill.  He  was  then  a  Conservative, 
though  one  of  the  moderate  group  which  was  under  the  influence 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  just  as  Palmerston  and  Peel  himself  had  been 
under  that  of  Canning.  Gladstone  was  soon  admitted  to  one  of  the 
Conservative  ministries  in  an  inferior  office,  and  after  that  time  for 
some  years  was  a  member  of  almost  every  ministry  of  that  party. 

His  opinions,  however,  like  those  of  Peel,  gradually  changed  in 
a  liberal  direction.  He  became  famous  for  his  knowledge  of  the 
details  of  financial  and  commercial  questions  and  for  his  skill  in 
explaining  them.  In  1853  he  became  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
and  ever  afterwards  occupied  that  office  when  he  was  in  the  min- 
istry. He  introduced  life  and  fire  and  eloquent  interest  into  all 
his  financial  statements  and  into  the  defense  of  the  principles 
upon  which  they  were  based.  Often  by  his  eloquence  he  held 
the  House  of  Commons  spellbound  for  hours  at  a  time  while  he 
explained  and  advocated  measures  of  the  most  commonplace  finan- 
cial character.  In  1858  he  became  chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in 
a  purely  Liberal  cabinet  and  from  that  time  forward  was  identified 
with  the  most  advanced  section  of  the  Liberal  party. 


THE  GROWTH   OF  DEMOCRACY  657 

Gladstone  was  one  of  those  who  advocated  further  reform  of 
parliament  and  for  several  years  gave  eloquent  but  unsuccess- 
ful support  to  the  efforts  that  were  made  to  obtain  it  before  it 
became  a  party  measure.  Several  bills  for  the  purpose  were  intro- 
duced between  1853  and  1863  by  private  members  of  parliament 
and  even  by  members  of  the  ministry,  and  reform  was  advocated 
mildly  in  the  queen's  speech.  But  it  was  known  that  the  prime 
minister,  Lord  Palmerston,  was  privately  opposed  to  it ;  there  was 
much  division  within  the  party  on  the  question,  and  for  some  years 
no  measure  favorable  to  reform  made  its  way  through  parliament. 
In  1865,  on  the  death  of  Lord  Palmerston,  Gladstone  became 
the  unquestioned  leader  of  the  Liberal  party,  though  Lord  Russell, 
as  the  older  and  more  prominent  man,  became  prime  minister.  A 
reform  bill  was  now  introduced  and  heartily  advocated  by  the 
Liberal  ministry,  but  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Commons 
notwithstanding  the  strong  popular  interest  in  reform  which  was 
showing  itself  in  the  country.  The  ministry  then  in  1866  resigned 
and  a  Conservative  ministry  came  into  office. 

593.  Disraeli  and  Acceptance  of  the  Principle  of  Reform 

Although  Lord  Derby,  a  veteran  statesman,  became  prime  min- 
ister, the  most  prominent  and  influential  member  of  this  cabinet 
was  Benjamin  Disraeli.  This  able  and  "active  minister  had  entered 
parliament  in  1837,  four  years  after  Gladstone,  and  remained 
a  Conservative  through  the  whole  of  a  long  and  influential  parlia- 
mentary career.  He  had  few  advantages  of  position,  being  of 
Jewish  descent,  though  his  father  had  become  a  Christian  in  reli- 
gion, and  having  many  peculiarities  of  manner  and  appearance  that 
were  distasteful  to  members  of  parliament ;  he  was,  however,  bril- 
liant in  speech  and  far-seeing  in  policy,  and  long  before  1866  had 
become  the  real  leader  of  the  Conservative  party.  Disraeli  and 
Gladstone  were  opponents  on  almost  all  measures,  and  this 
antagonism  continued  throughout  their  lives. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Liberals  had  been  defeated 
on  the  question  of  reform,  the  Conservatives  felt  that  some  kind 


658  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

of  a  reform  bill  must  be  introduced  and  carried.  The  discussion 
of  the  subject  had  continued  for  such  a  long  time  and  the  expres- 
sion of  public  opinion  had  been  so  strong  that  every  one  had  come 
to  feel  that  further  reform  of  parliament  must  be  made,  and  the 
only  question  was  the  form  and  extent  of  the  change.  Much  had 
occurred  to  prepare  the  nation  for  it. 

England  was  a  very  different  country  from  what  it  had  been  in 
1832.  In  the  first  place,  intelligence  was  far  more  widespread. 
Cheap  postage,  the  telegraph,  rapid  traveling  by  railroad,  many 
newspapers,  the  spread  of  education,  had  all  combined  to  awaken 
men's  minds  and  to  make  every  one  acquainted  with  what  was 
going  on  in  the  world.  Secondly,  the  working  classes,  from  whom 
the  new  voters  would  principally  come  if  the  suffrage  were  extended, 
had  been  rising  in  position.  The  factory  laws  had  shortened  hours 
of  labor  and  improved  the  surroundings  under  which  the  laborers 
worked.  The  trade  unions  had  done  much  to  train  them  in  self- 
government,  and  the  number,  order,  and  discipline  of  these  bodies 
when  they  appeared  in  public  processions  made  a  great  impression 
on  those  who  saw  them.  The  success  of  the  North  in  the  Ameri- 
can civil  war  was  in  a  certain  sense  a  testimony  to  the  good  judg- 
ment of  the  English  workingmen,  for  they  had  believed  in  that 
side,  while  the  upper  classes  had  generally  anticipated  its  failure. 
But  the  great  reason  for  the  wide  acceptance  of  the  general  prin- 
ciple of  a  bill  for  further  parliamentary  reform  was  the  passage  of 
time  since  the  last  measure  of  this  kind  had  been  adopted.  A 
new  generation  had  grown  up  which  was  familiar  with  the  deficien- 
cies of  the  existing  system  of  representation  and  was  not  familiar 
with  the  extent  to  which  it  was  an  improvement  on  still  older 
conditions.  To  this  generation  further  reform  seemed  a  natural 
and  necessary  step. 

594.  The  Reform  Bill  of  1867.— The  bill  was  introduced  by 
Disraeli  in  1867  as  a  very  moderate  measure.  One  amendment 
after  another,  however,  was  carried,  introducing  more  liberal 
principles,  till  it  was  a  far-reaching  and  thoroughgoing  measure. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  DEMOCRACY       659 

The  Conservatives  were  in  a  yielding  frame  of  mind,  Gladstone  and 
the  other  Liberal  leaders  urged  them  to  further  concessions,  and  the 
constant  agitation  going  on  outside  of  parliament  during  the  debates 
carried  both  parties  farther  than  they  quite  realized.  The  bill  was 
finally  carried  through  both  houses  by  quite  large  majorities. 

The  bill  of  1867  deprived  eleven  of  the  smaller  towns  of  the 
representation  which  had  been  left  to  them  in  1832.  Thirty-five 
other  towns  having  less  than  ten  thousand  population  were  each 
deprived  of  one  of  their  representatives.  These  representatives 
were  given  to  the  great  cities  and  thickly  populated  counties. 
The  most  important  change  was,  however,  in  the  right  of  voting. 
Household  suffrage  was  introduced  in  the  parliamentary  towns. 
That  is  to  say,  after  this  year  every  man  who  was  owner  or  tenant 
of  any  dwelling  house  and  paid  the  usual  taxes,  or  who  occupied 
lodgings  worth  £10  a  year,  had  a  right  to  vote.  In  the  country 
districts  every  one  who  held  either  as  owner  or  life  tenant  a  piece 
of  land  worth  ^5  a  year  or  more,  or  who  for  a  shorter  term  was 
a  tenant  of  land  worth  £12  a  year,  and  had  paid  the  usual  taxes, 
could  vote  for  county  members. 

Thus  in  the  towns  almost  every  man  would  have  a  vote,  for  almost 
every  man  would  either  own  or  rent  a  house  or  occupy  lodgings 
worth  £10  a  year.  In  the  rural  districts  all  the  farming  as  well 
as  the  landowning  class  would  have  votes.  The  only  large  body 
who  were  excluded  were  the  farm  laborers,  who  held  no  land  and 
whose  cottages  were  too  poor  to  reach  the  voting  limit  or  to  be 
assessed  for  taxes.  After  this  year  probably  two  thirds  of  the  men 
of  England  had  a  right  to  vote.  Mechanics  and  factory  laborers 
as  well  as  the  wealthy  and  professional  classes,  farmers  and  store- 
keepers as  well  as  landowners  and  merchants,  indeed  all  except 
the  farm  laborers  and  those  who  had  no  domicile,  could  vote  for 
members  of  parliament.  For  the  first  time  in  English  history 
parliament  was  under  the  control  of  the  mass  of  the  people. 

595.  Reform  Administration  of  Gladstone. — A  number  of  re- 
forms of  various  kinds  were  introduced  in  the  years  immediately 


660  A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

following  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1867,  as  had  occurred 
after  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832.  The  earliest  and  most  important 
of  these  were  carried  out  under  the  influence  of  Gladstone.  The 
first  election  after  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  gave  a  majority 
to  the  Liberals.  Disraeli  therefore  resigned  and  Gladstone  entered 
upon  a  prime  ministership  which  lasted  from  1868  to  1874. 

The  first  task  to  which  he  set  himself  was  the  disestablishment 
of  the  Irish  church.  At  the  Reformation  the  reformed  church  had 
been  officially  established  in  Ireland  in  the  same  form  as  in  Eng- 
land. Ever  since  that  time  its  sup- 
port had  been  forced  upon  the  Irish 
people  and  it  was  looked  upon  as  the 
state  church,  though  the  great  mass 
of  the  Irish  were  Roman  Catholics, 
except  in  the  north,  where  they  were 
mostly  Presbyterians.  After  a  long 
contest  in  parliament  in  1869  the 
official  character  was  taken  from  the 
Irish  church  and  it  became  a  purely 
voluntary  religious  body. 

In  1870  a  land  law  was  passed  for 
(  Ireland  giving  to  the  Irish  tenants 

^ j   ,  '  security  from  eviction  so  long  as  they 

paid  their  rents,  compensation  for 

the  improvements  they  had  made  upon  the  land  during  the  time 
of  their  tenancy,  and  an  advance  of  money  to  enable  them  to  buy 
their  farms  from  their  landlords.  In  the  same  year  the  first  im- 
portant act  for  the  establishment  of  a  national  system  of  free  ele- 
mentary schools  was  passed,  and  in  1871,  at  the  other  extreme  of 
the  educational  system,  the  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
were  thrown  open  to  Roman  Catholics  and  Dissenters  by  abolish- 
ing the  religious  tests  which  all  students  had  formerly  been  required 
to. sign.  In  the  same  year  the  use  of  the  secret  ballot  in  voting, 
instead  of  giving  the  vote  by  word  of  mouth,  was  introduced  by 


THE  GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY 


66 1 


an  act  of  parliament,  temporarily  at  first  but  afterwards  as  a  per- 
manent system.  This  was  one  of  the  old  Chartist  proposals  and 
had  been  frequently  advocated  -in  parliament  since  their  time,  but 
until  1871  had  always  been  defeated  either  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons or  the  House  of  Lords.  In  the  same  year  an  act  legalizing 
trade  unions  was  passed. 

In  1870  and  1871  a  reorganization  of  the  army  took  place. 
The  most  interesting  changes  introduced  were  the  abolition  of  the 
purchase  system,  by  which  officers  had  long  been  able  to  purchase 
promotion  in  the  army,  and  the  or- 
ganization of  all  the  regiments  on 
the  basis  of  the  counties  from  which 
they  were  recruited.  Shortly  after- 
wards a  reform  was  introduced  into 
the  judicial  system  according  to 
which  the  four  old  courts  of  law  and 
equity  —  King's  Bench,  Common 
Pleas,  Exchequer,  and  Chancery, 
whose  organization  dated  back  to  the 
time  of  the  Angevin  kings  —  were 
united  and  became  mere  divisions  of 
the  "Supreme  Court  of  Judicature." 
They  were  all  established  in  one  set 
of  buildings  in  the  heart  of  London, 
instead  of  sitting  at  Westminster  in  separate  locations  as  before. 

596.  The  Imperial  Policy.  — By  this  time  most  of  the  various 
reforms  for  which  there  was  pressure  at  that  time  had  been  either 
adopted  or  introduced  and  defeated.  Disraeli  with  his  sharp 
tongue  described  the  ministers,  as  they  sat  on  the  front  bench  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  as  "  a  row  of  extinct  volcanoes."  In 
1874  the  majority  turned  against  the  Liberals,  Gladstone  resigned, 
and  Disraeli  became  prime  minister  for  the  second  time.  He 
had  always  held  high  ideas  of  the  proper  position  of  England  in 
foreign  affairs  and  now  proceeded  to  turn  the  attention  of  the 


Disraeli 


662  A   SHORT  HISTORY-  OF  ENGLAND 

country  in  that  direction  and  to  carry  to  great  lengths  what  is 
often  called  the  "imperial"  policy.1  In  1875  he  purchased  in 
the  name  of  the  government  a  majority  of  the  shares  of  the  Suez 
Canal  stock,  thus  bringing  that  great  highroad  under  English  con- 
trol and  checking  the  ambitions  of  France,  under  whose  auspices 
the  canal  had  been  begun.  He  tried  to  prevent  the  war  of  1877 
between  Russia  and  Turkey,  even  after  a  series  of  terrible  atrociv 
ties  committed  by  the  Turks  in  Bulgaria  had  raised  an  outcry  ot 
horror  over  all  Europe  and  America.  After  the  close  of  that  war, 
at  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  Disraeli,  who  had  just  been  made  earl 
of  Beaconsfield,  stood  in  the  way  of  Russian  aggrandizement 
and  secured  for  England  the  possession  of  the  island  of  Cyprus. 
His  policy  was  responsible  for  several  of  the  petty  wars  already 
described,  especially  those  in  Afghanistan  and  South  Africa.  By 
1880  this  policy  had  become  for  the  time  unpopular  in  Eng- 
land, the  Conservatives  were  defeated,  the  Liberals  came  back  to 
power,  and  Gladstone  became  prime  minister  for  the  second  time. 
In  1 88 1  Lord  Beaconsfield  died,  thus  bringing,  to  an  end  the 
curious  rivalry  by  which  he  and  Gladstone  had  alternately  held 
the  chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer  for  twenty-five  years  and  the 
prime  ministership  for  thirteen. 

597.  The  Third  Reform  Bill.  —  Gladstone  was  still,  however, 
hale  and  hearty,  and  in  1884  entered  upon  a  contest  for  a  third 
reform  of  parliament.  This  was  brought  into  practical  discussion 
as  early  as  1872  by  a  strike  for  better  wages  among  the  farm 
laborers.  In  England  there  are  three  distinct  classes  connected 
with  the  land,. —  the  landlords  who  own  the  farms,  the  farmers 
who  rent  them,  and  the  laborers  who  work  upon  them  for  wages. 
When  trouble  arose  between  the  last  class  and  the  employing 
farmers  it  came  to  be  generally  recognized  how  numerous  they 

1  This  has  also  sometimes  been  called  the  "  Jingo  "  policy,  from  a  popu- 
lar song  of  the  music  halls  of  the  time. 

We  do  not  want  to  fight  them,  but,  by  Jingo,  if  we  do, 

We  have  the  ships,  we  have  the  men,  we  have  the  money  too. 


THE  GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY 


663 


were,  how  completely  they  were  excluded  from  any  share  in  the 
government,  and  how  depressed  was  their  condition.  As  a  result 
an  agitation  sprang  up  to  change  the  laws  so  that  they  also, 
like  all  other  considerable  classes  in  the  country,  should  have 
the  right  to  vote.  Of  this  movement  Gladstone  made  him- 
self the  leader,  and  in  1884  he  succeeded,  against  much  opposi- 
tion, in  carrying  through  parliament  another  reform  bill  which 
extended  the  franchise  to  the 
farm  laborers  and  a  number  of 
other  smaller  classes  which  had 
not  before  been  included.  The 
House  of  Lords  at  first  rejected 
the  bill,  but  after  being  threat- 
ened, much  as  in  1832,  they 
gave  way  and  passed  it. 

At  the  same  time  the  process 
of  depriving  the  smaller  towns 
of  their  separate  representatives 
in  parliament  was  carried  a  long 
step  farther,  more  than  a  hun- 
dred becoming  for  purposes  of 
representation  simply  parts  of 
the  counties  in  which  they  lay. 
As  in  previous  reform  bills  these  representatives  were  transferred 
to  the  counties  and  the  larger  cities.  At  the  same  time  all  the 
counties  and  most  of  the  large  towns  were  divided  into  electoral 
districts  of  almost  equal  numbers  of  inhabitants.  Each  of  these 
sends  one  member  to  parliament.  This  portion  of  the  bill  was 
separated  from  the  part  which  referred  to  the  franchise  and  was 
passed  with  little  opposition  in  the  year  1885.  Thus  universal 
suffrage,  equal  electoral  districts,  and  vote  by  ballot,  three  of  the 
old  points  of  the  Charter,  were  practically  attained. 

598.  Reforms  in  Local  Government.  —  In  1882  the  "  Municipal 
Corporations  Act "  was  passed,  giving  the  right  to  vote  for  city 


Throne  in  the  House  of  Lords 


664  A   SHORT  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

officers  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities,  whether  property  hold- 
ers or  not.  In  1888  "County  Councils"  and  in  1894  "Parish 
Councils "  were  created  by  acts  passed  by  parliament.  These 
were  representative  bodies  elected  in  each  county  and  parish 
by  universal  suffrage,  even  women  having  a  right  to  vote  for 
them  and  to  serve  upon  them.  To  these  councils  is  given  the 
charge  of  most  matters  connected  with  education,  public  health, 
the  poor,  and  many  other  local  interests,  though  their  power  is  of 
course  limited  by  the  general  laws  passed  by  parliament  on  these 
matters.  Thus  many  powers  formerly  exercised  by  appointed 
magistrates  are  now  possessed  by  elected  bodies,  and  government 
is  brought  close  home  to  the  mass  of  the  people  in  England  by 
allowing  them  to  govern  themselves  in  many  everyday  matters 
in  their  own  localities. 

England  may  be  considered  to  have  now  become  a  complete 
democracy.  National  and  local  affairs  are  under  the  control  of 
the  whole  body  of  the  people.  The  ministers  carry  on  the 
government  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  majority  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  if  they  are  outvoted  on  any  impor- 
tant question  they  immediately  resign  and  the  sovereign  calls  the 
leader  of  the  opposite  party  to  the  prime  ministership.1  As  the 
House  of  Commons  is  elected  by  all  the  people,  parliament  can- 
not for  any  length  of  time  act  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  the 
people,  any  more  than  the  ministry  can  act  in  opposition  to  the 
will  of  parliament. 

599.  Irish  Home  Rule.  —  In  1886  Gladstone  had  his  last  great 
contest  on  a  measure  of  reform,  and  he  was  defeated.  For  a 
number  of  years  leading  Irishmen  had  kept  up  an  agitation  for 

1  The  plan  by  which  the  ministry  is  dependent  upon  the  approval  of  its 
acts  by  the  majority  in  parliament  is  called  "responsible  government." 
The  resignation  of  office  by  the  ministers  when  parliament  refuses  to  pass 
the  measures  they  recommend,  adopts  measures  they  oppose,  or  expresses 
its  disapproval  of  their  actions,  has  become  so  customary  as  to  be  practi- 
cally compulsory. 


THE  GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY  665 

what  they  called  "home  rule."  By  this  they  meant  something 
like  a  return  to  the  system  in  existence  before  1800,  when  Ire- 
land had  a  separate  parliament  of  her  own  for  her  internal  affairs. 
The  leadership  in  this  movement  fell  into  the  hands  of  Charles 
Stewart  Parnell,  an  Irish  Protestant  member  of  parliament  who 
showed  considerable  ability  and  vigorous  leadership.  Finally  eighty- 
six  of  the  one  hundred  members  from  Ireland  became  advocates  of 
home  rule,  and  it  was  desired  almost  universally  in  that  country. 

Many  concessions  had  been  made  to  Ireland  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  century  in  matters  of  landholding,  religion,  and  education, 
but  discontent  was  scarcely  diminished  and  disorder  was  constant. 
Both  Liberal  and  Conservative  ministries  repeatedly  obtained 
from  parliament  extraordinary  powers  of  keeping  the  peace,  in 
the  form  of  what  were  known  as  "  coercion  acts."  These  angered 
and  alienated  great  numbers  of  the  Irish  people  and  the  country 
was  unhappy  and  unprosperous.  Gladstone,  though  like  other 
English  political  leaders  he  had  long  opposed  the  plans  of  the 
home-rule  party,  finally  became  convinced  that  it  would  be  better 
to  yield  to  their  wishes  and  thus  obtain  peace  and  contentment 
than  to  keep  up  the  opposition.  In  1886,  when  he  was  prime 
minister  for  the  third  time,  he  introduced  a  bill  to  give  Ireland  a 
separate  parliament  for  her  own  affairs,  to  sit  at  Dublin.  But  he 
could  not  carry  his  party  with  him.  John  Bright,  Joseph  Cham- 
berlain, and  a  large  proportion  of  the  Liberals  seceded,  formed 
a  new  party,  the  "  Liberal  Unionists,"  and  joined  with  the  Con- 
servatives to  defeat  the  bill  by  a  considerable  majority.  Par- 
liament was  then  dissolved  and  new  elections  were  held  to  test 
the  feeling  of  the  country  on  the  question.  Since  these  resulted 
unfavorably  to  home  rule,  Gladstone  resigned  orifice. 

After  the  Conservatives  and  Liberal  Unionists,  with  Lord  Salis- 
bury as  prime  minister,  had  retained  control  of  parliament  for  a 
period  of  six  years,  Gladstone,  in  1892,  although  eighty-three 
years  old,  became  prime  minister  again,  being  the  only  English 
statesman  who  had  ever  held  that  office  four  times.  He  now 


666  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

carried  by  a  small  majority  a  modified  home-rule  bill  through  the 
House  of  Commons,  but  it  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Lords 
and  the  interest  in  it  was  so  slight  that  the  lower  house  did  not 
pass  it  again.  In  1894  Gladstone  retired  from  parliament  on 
account  of  ill  health,  and  in  1898  died  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
eight  Home  rule  was  on  his  resignation  dropped  by  the  leaders 
of  the  Liberal  party.  Since  its  failure  county  and  district  coun- 
cils have  been  created  for  Ireland  by  act  of  parliament,  sundry 
land  bills  in  favor  of  the  Irish  tenants  have  been  passed,  and 
much  done  towards  giving  the  Irish  people  local  self-government 
and  prosperity.  Nevertheless  the  question  of  Ireland  and  her 
future  remains  an  unsettled  and  unsatisfactory  one. 

600.  British  Colonies  and  Dependencies.  —  As  the  nineteenth 
century  has  drawn  to  its  close,  and  as  the  twentieth  century  has 
begun  its  course,  questions  of  the  whole  British  Empire  have 
come  into  greater  prominence  than  internal  questions  or  the 
relations  between  England  and  Ireland.  Certain  of  the  younger 
ministers,  especially  Joseph  Chamberlain,  have  called  frequent 
attention  to  these  questions,  and  in  the  jubilee  celebrations  of 
Queen  Victoria,  in  1887  and  1897,  festivities  through  all  parts  of 
the  empire  and  deputations  coming  to  England  from  its  farthest 
parts  have  increased  the  recognition  of  its  importance. 

It  becomes  necessary,  therefore,  to  make  a  rapid  survey  of  the 
colonies  and  dependencies  of  Great  Britain,  and  to  describe  the 
main  occurrences  in  their  recent  development  and  in  their  rela- 
tions to  the  mother  country.  Of  the  long  list  of  British  domin- 
ions in  various  parts  of  the  world1  many  have  been  acquired 

1  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  most  important  groups  of  British  depend- 
encies.    The  total  number  extends  to  almost  if  not  quite  a  hundred. 
Australasia  South  Africa  Newfoundland 

India  Nigeria  British  Guiana 

Ceylon  Gibraltar  Jamaica 

Hong  Kong  Malta  Barbadoes 

Straits  Settlements  Cyprus  The  Bahamas 

East  Africa  Canada  The  Bermudas 


THE   GROWTH    OF   DEMOCRACY 


667 


by  conquest  and  have  remained  foreign  communities  under  the 
British  crown,  being  ruled  primarily  for  the  commercial  or  mili- 
tary advantage  of  Great  Britain.  Of  this  class  of  colonies  India  is 
the  greatest  example,  as  its  history  has  shown,1  though  many  of 
the  smaller  colonies,  such  as  Hong  Kong,  Malta,  and  St.  Helena, 
are  still  more  characteristic  examples. 

Other  colonies,  however,   were  originally  settled  by   English 
emigrants,  or  have  been  so  largely  occupied  by  Englishmen  since 
their  acquisition  that  they  have 
become  new  branches  of  the 
English  race  and  nation.   The 
most  important  colonies  of  this 
character  are  Canada,  Austra- 
lia and  New  Zealand,  and 
South  Africa. 

601 .  Canada.  — When  Can- 
ada came  into  the  possession 
of  Great  Britain  by  the  Treaty 
of  Paris  in  1 7  6  3  it  was  occupied 
by  a  French  population  spread 
along  the  lower  waters  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  around  Quebec 
and  Montreal,  and  in  a  few 
scattered  posts  along  the  Great  Lakes,  besides  some  English  settlers 
in  Acadia,  or  Nova  Scotia,  and  in  Newfoundland.  At  the  close  of 
the  American  Revolution  some  thirty  or  forty  thousand  Loyalists 
emigrated  from  the  United  States  and  were  added  to  the  English- 
speaking  population  of  Canada.  Most  of  these  either  settled  in 
Nova  Scotia  or  pushed  on  beyond  the  French  pa"rt  of  the  province 
and  settled  farther  up  the  St.  Lawrence  River  and  to  the  north 
of  the  Great  Lakes.  Colonists  soon  began  to  come  directly  from 
England  and  Scotland,  going  likewise  for  the  most  part  to  the 
western  part  of  the  province.  Thus  there  grew  up,  in  addition  to 
1  See  pp.  565-571  and  649-652. 


Queen  Victoria 


668  A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  maritime  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  New- 
foundland, two  sections  of  Canada,  one  in  the  lower  St.  Lawrence 
occupied  by  the  descendants  of  the  French  settlers,  the  other  in 
the  upper  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  occupied  by  English 
settlers.  In  1791  these  were  organized  by  an  act  of  parliament 
into  two  provinces  known  as  "Upper"  and  "Lower"  Canada,  each 
of  which  was  to  have  a  council  and  assembly  with  quite  limited 
powers.  The  governor  and  council  were  appointed  by  the  British 
government,  the  assembly  was  elected  by  the  people. 

In  both  of  the  provinces  there  was  contention  between  the 
governor  and  the  assembly,  especially  in  Lower  Canada,  where 
the  French  population  felt  that  they  were  being  tyrannized  over 
by  the  English  governor  and  council.  This  discontent  became 
so  serious  that  in  1837  and  1838  small  rebellions  broke  out  in 
both  sections.  As  a  result  of  these  difficulties  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment was  passed  in  1840  which  united  the  two  provinces  and 
gave  somewhat  greater  powers  to  the  elected  assembly.  After 
this  constitution  was  adopted  the  governor  general  of  Canada, 
although  still  retaining  the  power  due  to  his  appointment  by  the 
crown,  made  a  habit  of  appointing  a  ministry  from  the  members 
of  the  party  which  had  the  majority  in  the  assembly.  This  gave 
the  people  of  Canada  practical  self-government,  and  the  Cana- 
dian ministry  soon  came  to  govern  the  colony  under  the  nominal 
control  of  the  governor  general,  just  as  in  England  the  ministry 
carries  on  the  government  under  the  king  or  queen. 

602.  The  Federal  Dominion  of  Canada.  — After  self-government 
had  been  thus  attained  the  one  remaining  point  of  serious  dis- 
satisfaction was  the  discord  between  the  French  and  the  English 
races.  Combined  as  they  now  were  under  one  assembly  and 
governor,  the  French  Catholic  inhabitants  of  Lower  Canada  felt 
that  they  were  being  interfered  with  in  regard  to  their  religion, 
laws,  and  customs.  The  English  and  Protestant  inhabitants  of 
Upper  Canada,  on  the  other  hand,  were  continually  increasing 
in  numbers  and  were  dissatisfied  that  the  French  minority  still 


THE   GROWTH   OF  DEMOCRACY  669 

retained  so  much  power  in  the  government.  Partly  to  remedy 
this  state  of  affairs,  partly  to  attain  still  higher  ends,  a  series  of 
conferences  was  held  by  representatives  of  the  two  sections  of 
Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick,  and  it  was  determined 
to  ask  the  home  government  to  separate  Upper  and  Lower  Canada 
and  then  to  combine  all  these  states  in  a  confederacy  somewhat 
similar  to  the  United  States.  This  was  finally  agreed  to  by  all  the 
colonial  legislatures,  and  a  bill  for  the  purpose  was  carried  through 
the  British  parliament  in  1867.  Lower  Canada  took  the  name 
of  Quebec,  and  Upper  Canada  that  of  Ontario,  while  the  whole 
confederation,  including  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  became 
known  as  "The  Dominion  of  Canada." 

Since  1867  there  has  been  one  federal  government  for  gen- 
eral affairs,  with  its  capital  at  Ottawa,  with  a  governor  general 
appointed  by  the  home  government,  a  federal  ministry,  and  a  par- 
liament of  two  houses,  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Commons, 
elected  by  the  whole  Canadian  people.  Each  state  of  the  confed- 
eration has  a  somewhat  similar  government  for  its  own  internal 
affairs,  a  lieutenant  general  being  appointed  for  each  by  the  gov- 
ernor general,  but  having,  like  him  and  like  the  sovereign  he 
represents,  scarcely  more  than  nominal  powers.  Practically  the 
Canadians  govern  themselves  in  all  respects  except  in  their  rela- 
tions with  other  nations. 

In  1869  the  Canadian  government  bought  out  the  rights  of  the 
Hudson  Bay  Company  to  the  vast  domains  to  the  westward  and 
northward,  and  these  have  been  since  gradually  settled  and  divided 
up  into  eleven  new  states  and  territories.  The  Dominion  of  Canada 
now  occupies  a  territory  about  equal  to  that  of  the  United  States 
and  has  a  population  of  some  five  and  a  half  millions. 

603.  Colonization  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  —  Founded 
later  than  Canada  but  more  purely  English,  the  first  population  of 
Australia  was  constituted  of  rather  unpromising  material.  It  was 
a  body  of  about  seven  hundred  convicts  and  their  guards  sent  by 
the  government  in  1788  to  Botany  Bay,  on  that  part  of  the  eastern 


670  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

coast  which  had  been  previously  explored  by  Captain  Cook  and 
by  him  named  New  South  Wales.  In  1783  a  law  had  been  passed 
authorizing  the  ministers  to  form  one  or  more  penal  settlements 
wherever  they  should  think  fit.  At  about  the  same  time  the  col- 
onization of  the  fertile  and  unoccupied  shores  of  eastern  Australia 
was  being  strongly  advocated  for  commercial  reasons.  The  two 
objects  were  now  combined  and  the  penal  colony  was  established 
at  the  same  time  that  free  settlers  were  urged  to  emigrate  thither. 
From  1788  onward  the  government  continued  to  send  large  bodies 
of  convicts,  while  at  the  same  time  independent  colonists  estab- 
lished themselves  there  in  some  numbers. 

Every  effort  was  made  to  encourage  the  settlement  of  a  per- 
manent population.  All  who  chose  to  emigrate  to  Australia  were 
given  liberal  grants  of  land,  officers  and  soldiers  who  had  fulfilled 
their  terms  of  enlistment  were  encouraged  to  remain,  and  the  con- 
victs themselves,  on  the  expiration  of  their  sentences,  which  were 
usually  for  seven  years,  were  given  land  and  the  opportunity  to 
begin  life  anew  among  more  favorable  surroundings.  Population 
thus  gradually  grew  and  spread  and  new  settlements  were  formed. 
The  original  settlement  was  named  Sydney  and  became  a  large 
city,  the  district  of  which  it  was  the  center  retaining  the  name 
of  New  South  Wales.  The  later  settlements  were  in  some  cases 
offshoots  of  this,  in  others  independent  colonies  established  from 
England.  Since  Australia  is  about  ten  times  the  size  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  together,  the  vast  distances  necessarily  made 
the  more  remote  of  these  colonies  practically  independent  of  one 
another,  and  one  after  another  they  were  organized  as  separate 
colonies.  Tasmania,  an  island  about  two  hundred  miles  in  length 
and  breadth,  situated  off  the  southern  coast,  was  the  first  of  these. 
Its  settlement  and  organization  were  followed  by  the  establish- 
ment of  Queensland,  Victoria,  Western  Australia,  and  South  Aus- 
tralia. New  Zealand,  the  other  great  Australasian1  island  group, 

The  term  Atistralasia  is  properly  used  to  include  the  colonies  on  the 
mainland  of  Australia,  the  island  of  Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand. 


THE   GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY  6/1 

which  lies  twelve  hundred  miles  to  the  eastward  of  Australia,  fol- 
lowed a  somewhat  similar  course,  its  regular  settlement  being 
begun  in  1833,  although  a  wild  population  of  shipwrecked  sailors, 
escaped  convicts,  and  other  outlaws  had  occupied  one  spot  on  the 
coast  for  some  years  before,  and  the  Maoris,  the  native  race,  were 
a  numerous  and. vigorous  people. 

The  earliest  and  most  permanent  industry  of  the  people  of 
both  Australia  and  New  Zealand  was  naturally  agriculture,  but  in 
1797  coal  was  discovered  in  Australia  and  extensively  mined,  and 
soon  afterwards  the  inland  districts  were  explored  and  proved  to 
have  vast  plains  suitable  for  sheep  and  cattle  raising^  so  that 
Australia  has  become  the  greatest  wool-producing  country  of  the 
world.  In  1851  gold  was  discovered  in  New  South  Wales  and 
soon  afterwards  in  Victoria,  Queensland,  and  New  Zealand.  The 
gold  fever  now  brought  in  suddenly  a  great  wave  of  immigration 
from  all  parts  of  the  world.  This  increase  of  numbers  has  con- 
tinued in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  until  in  1902  the  population  of 
the  six  Australian  colonies  amounted  to  about  five  millions.  With 
this  increased  population  manufacturing  and  more  varied  industries 
have  been  introduced,  so  that  these  colonies  now  provide  for  all 
their  needs  as  completely  as  any  other  civilized  country. 

As  the  free  population  increased  and  the  prosperity  and  self- 
respect  of  the  colonists  became  more  highly  developed,  the  oppo- 
sition to  the  transportation  of  convicts  to  their  shores  became 
greater  and  greater,  and  the  home  government  felt  compelled  to 
yield  to  their  wishes.  In  1840  transportation  to  New  South 
Wales  was  given  up,  and  in  1865  it  was  totally  abolished  as 
respected  the  whole  island. 

604.  Australasian  Self-government  and  Confederation.  —  At 
first  the  Australian  colonies  were  ruled  almost  absolutely  by  the 
governors  appointed  by  the  home  government.  In  1823,  how- 
ever, a  constitution  was  granted  by  act  of  parliament  to  the  two 
colonies  which  then  existed,  New  South  Wales  and  Tasmania, 
giving  them  each  a  council,  the  members  of  which  were,  however, 


6/2  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

appointed  by  the  governor.  These  rights  were  added  to  in  later 
constitutional  grants,  a  council  elected  by  the  colonists  in  New 
South  Wales  being  authorized  in  1842  and  extended  in  1850  to 
the  other  colonies  then  in  existence  This  was  the  beginning  of 
self-government,  and  in  1855  the  four  colonies,  with  the  permission 
of  parliament,  laid  before  the  home  government  new  constitutions 
drawn  up  by  themselves  and  in  accordance  with  their  own  wishes. 
.They  were  approved  and  each  of  the  Australasian  colonies  became 
a  self-governing  state  with  only  the  same  general  supervision  exer- 
cised over  it  by  the  British  government  as  has  been  described  in 
the  case  of  Canada.  Universal  suffrage  and  the  ballot  were  early 
introduced,  and  in  each  colony  the  ministry  is  dependent  on  the 
majority  in  the  colonial  legislature.  Thus  an  almost  complete 
democracy,  similar  to  that  of  the  mother  country  and  indeed  in 
some  respects  in  advance  of  it,  has  been  introduced  in  these  dis- 
tant colonies.  Ever  since  the  attainment  of  full  self-government 
in  1855,  there  has  been  an  effort  to  bring  about  a  closer  union 
among  the  seven  Australasian  colonies.  Nothing  was  accom- 
plished till  1883,  when  a  "  Federal  Council  for  Australasia"  was 
formed,  though  with  very  limited  powers.  In  1891  a  convention 
met  at  Sydney  and  drew  up  a  plan  for  a  closer  union  much  like 
that  of  Canada  or  the  United  States,  with  provision  for  a  parlia- 
ment of  two  houses,  for  federal  courts,  and  a  governor  general 
to  be  appointed  by  the  crown.  The  separate  colonial  govern- 
ments were  to  remain  as  before  except  for  those  powers  which 
they  must  turn  over  to  the  central  government.  After  much  dis- 
cussion this  federal  constitution  was  adopted  by  all  the  colonies 
in  1899,  and  with  the  approval  of  parliament  the  name  "  Common- 
wealth of  Australia  "  was  adopted  for  the  new  confederation.  The 
circumstances  of  their  origin  brought  it  about  that  the  central 
government  in  Canada  is  much  stronger,  in  Australia  much  weaker, 
than  the  state  governments. 

605.  South  Africa.  — Just  as  Canada  was  a  French  colony  cap- 
tured by  England  in  1763,  so  Cape  Colony  was  originally  a  Dutch 


THE   GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY  673 

settlement  which  came  into  the  final  possession  of  the  British  by 
conquest  in  1806,  during  the  wars  against  Napoleon.  The  colo- 
nists, who  had  mostly  emigrated  from  Holland  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  were  a  hardy  and  independent  race  of 
farmers  and  stock  raisers  who  were  known  as  "  Boers."  1 

They  showed  themselves  quite  unwilling  to  adopt  the  new  lan- 
guage, customs,  form  of  religion,  and  ideas  which  the  English  gov- 
ernors of  the  colony  tried  to  introduce.  They  were  also  deeply 
aggrieved  by  the  abolition  of  slavery,  which  occurred  in  South 
Africa,  as  in  all  the  rest  of  the  British  dominions,  in  1833.  The 
result  of  this  was  that  between  1836  and  1842  great  numbers  of 
the  Boers  "  trekked,"  or  emigrated,  from  Cape  Colony  northward 
into  the  wilderness.  There  they  formed  two  separate  states, — 
the  Orange  Free  State,  and  still  farther  north  the  Transvaal,  or 
country  across  the  Vaal  River.  In  1852  and  1854  the  independ- 
ence of  these  two  states,  at  least  in  their  internal  affairs,  was 
acknowledged  by  the  British  government. 

The  native  races  of  South  Africa  were  numerous  and  warlike 
and  both  the  English  and  the  Dutch  colonists  had  many  conflicts 
with  them.  As  population  increased  and  new  immigrants  arrived 
from  England,  as  the  boundaries  of  the  old  colonies  were  extended 
and  new  and  ambitious  chieftains  arose  among  the  natives,  these 
conflicts  became  more  frequent.  They  led  to  several  prolonged 
wars,  to  the  annexation  of  new  territory  by  the  British,  and  to 
the  formation  of  several  new  colonies,  the  most  important  of 
which  was  Natal,  regularly  organized  in  1856.  In  1870  the  great 
diamond  fields  at  Kimberley,  north  of  Cape  Colony,  were  discov- 
ered and  were  soon  taken  possession  of  by  England. 

In  1877  the  British  government,  hoping  to  establish  a  barrier 
against  the  natives,  attempted  to  form  a  confederation  among  all 
the  South  African  colonies,  Boer  and  British.  When  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Transvaal  resisted  this  effort  their  country  was  by 
proclamation  annexed  to  Cape  Colony.  In  1880,  however,  the 
1  The  word  Boer,  pronounced  boor,  is  the  Dutch  for  "farmer." 


674  A  SHORT  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Boers  of  that  state  revolted,  declared  their  independence,  and 
gained  several  victories  over  British  troops.  Negotiations  soon 
took  place  and  independence  was  granted  to  the  Transvaal,  except 
that  the  Boers  agreed  to  recognize  the  suzerainty  of  Great  Britain 
in  their  foreign  affairs  and  in  their  relations  with  the  native  races. 
In  1884  there  were  some  modifications  of  these  arrangements  but 
they  do  not  seem  to  have  been  generally  understood. 

606.  The  Boer  War.  —  In  1886  gold  was  discovered  in  the 
territory  of  the  Transvaal,  or  "South  African  Republic,"  as  it 
had  been  called  since  1884,  and  soon  this  became  one  of  the 
greatest  gold  fields  of  the  world,  producing  more  than  one  fourth 
of  the  total  annual  supply  of  gold.  As  a  result  much  English 
and  other  European  population  and  capital  poured  into  the 
Transvaal,  and  a  whole  nation  of  "  Outlanders  "  grew  up,  having 
no  share  in  the  Boer  government,  although  they  paid  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  taxes. 

During  the  same  period  the  boundaries  of  the  English  posses- 
sions on  the  northwest  were  being  pushed  almost  a  thousand 
miles  farther,  mainly  by  the  energy  of  Cecil  Rhodes,  a  wealthy 
mine  owner,  a  man  of  far-reaching  ideas,  and  the  prime  minister 
of  Cape  Colony.  The  two  semi-independent  Boer  republics  were 
thus  almost  entirely  surrounded  by  British  territory  and  at  least 
partly  populated  with  British  subjects.  Disputes  now  became 
almost  constant,  until  in  October,  1899,  the  Transvaal,  in  alliance 
with  the  Orange  Free  State,  declared  war  against  Great  Britain. 

The  two  Boer  republics  made  but  a  small  nation  compared  with 
Great  Britain,  but  they  were  well  fitted  by  character  and  training 
for  warfare,  their  governments  during  the  whole  course  of  the  dis- 
putes with  England  had  been  drawing  from  Europe  immense  sup- 
plies of  the  most  improved  cannons,  rifles,  and  ammunition,  and 
the  nature  of  the  country  was  favorable  to  defense  against  attack. 
The  war,  therefore,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  whole  world,  was 
begun  by  an  almost  unbroken  series  of  victories  for  the  Boers. 
All  through  the  early  winter  of  1899  and  *9°o  they  defeated  the 


St.Louia 
Cape  Verde  Islandb 


French   Military 


L   A    N   T   I 


THE  PARTITION  O* 

AFRICA 


Showtne  the  Colonies,  Dependencies, 
Protectorates,  and  Spheres  of  Influence  of 
the  different  European  States. 

B                                LEGEND 
ritish  CTD  French  CZ3  Germa 
Portuguese  IL     t  Italian  I 1 
eglons  not  under  European  control  are  uucolored 


Longitude      20    West 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE   GROWTH    OF   DEMOCRACY  675 

British  in  engagement  after  engagement.  The  English  govern- 
ment sent  all  its  available  troops  to  South  Africa,  called  out  the 
reserves,  accepted  the  services  of  volunteer  militia  regiments  and 
of  troops  offered  by  the  colonies,  until  it  had  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  men  in  the  field,  more  than  in  any  previous  war  in 
which  England  had  been  engaged.  The  commander  in  chief  of 
the  British  army,  Lord  Roberts,  took  command  and  gradually  the 
Boers  were  overwhelmed.  After  a  year  of  warfare  serious  resist- 
ance came  to  an  end,  the  capitals  and  all  the  important  points  of 
the  two  countries  were  occupied  by  British  troops,  and  the  govern- 
ments of  the  two  republics  were  dissolved.  An  embassy  was  sent 
by  the  Boers  to  the  various  governments  of  Europe  and  to  the 
United  States  seeking  intervention,  but  they  received  no  encour- 
agement. Then  ensued  a  year  and  a  half  more  of  guerilla  war- 
fare, until  in  May,  1902,  all  hostilities  were  suspended  and  the 
remaining  Boer  troops  agreed  to  give  up  further  resistance. 

In  the  meantime  the  British  government  had  annexed  the  two 
republics  to  the  empire  under  the  names  of  the  "  Transvaal  Col- 
ony "  and  the  "  Orange  River  Colony."  All  the  inhabitants  were 
forced  to  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  the  English  king.  At 
the  same  time  the  British  government  announced  that  the  Dutch 
language  would  not  be  disturbed,  that  civil  government  would  be 
substituted  for  military  authority  as  soon  as  possible,  and  that  rep- 
resentative institutions  would  be  introduced,  leading  up,  as  might 
fairly  be  hoped  at  some  time  in  the  future,  to  the  position  of  a 
self-governing  colony  of  the  British  Empire.  At  the  same  time 
a  large  amount  of  money  was  loaned  by  the  British  government, 
without  interest  to  the  Boers  for  the  restocking  of  their  farms. 

607.  South  African  Federation.  —  Cape  Colony,  Natal,  and  less 
completely,  the  other  South  African  colonies,  have  been  granted 
from  time  to  time  the  same  degree  of  self-government  that  has 
been  attained  by  Canada  and  Australia.  Population  has  steadily 
increased  until,  including  that  of  the  recently  annexed  colonies, 
it  approaches  four  millions.  It  has  repeatedly  been  proposed  that 


6;6 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


some  such  scheme  of  federation  as  exists  in  the  two  groups  of  col- 
onies last  described  should  be  introduced ;  and  it  seems  altogether 
likely  that  this  will  be  done,  although  the  immense  mass  of  natives 
living  as  servants  in  the  colonies  or  as  independent  tribes  on  the 
borders  will  necessarily  make  the  form  of  such  a  confederation 
somewhat  different  from  that  of  Canada  or  Australia. 

608.  Imperial  Federation.  —  During  the  war  in  South  Africa, 
as  has  been  mentioned,  India,  Canada,  and  the  Australian  colo- 
nies sent  bodies  of  volunteer  troops 
to  help  the  forces  of  the  mother 
country  and  of  Cape  Colony. 
These  troops  were  very  welcome 
and  the  action  of  the  colonies  send- 
ing them  called  forth  great  enthu- 
siasm. Yet  the  incident  brings  up 
one  of  the  gravest  problems  in  the 
life  of  the  British  race.  How  far 
is  merely  voluntary  action,  based 
on  patriotic  sentiment,  a  strong 
enough  bond  to  hold  together  a 
vast  empire?  Many  parts  of  the 
British  Empire,  as  has  been  seen, 
now  govern  themselves  in  almost 
entire  independence ;  they  have  been  allowed  by  the  mother 
country  to  introduce  democratic  institutions;  they  are  rapidly 
approaching  her  in  numbers,  wealth,  and  enterprise;  and  they 
have  every  capacity  for  existence  as  separate  independent  nations. 
Will  they  want  to  become  such,  and  if  so  will  Great  Britain  be 
willing  to  let  them  go  ? 

Sentiment  at  the  present  time  both  at  home  and  in  the  colo- 
nies is  strongly  in  favor  of  holding  the  mother  country  and  all 
these  daughter  lands  together,  but  the  bond  which  unites  them  has 
become  a  very  slender  one.  How  to  make  it  stronger  has  become 
a  matter  of  much  interest  and  effort.  "  Imperial  Federation," 


Edward  VII 


O  C  EA  N 

Marcus  I.-    _| 
Treble" 


TERRITORIES  OF 

UllEAT  HKlTAIXLg     Q         IMTED  STATES  I  I 

GERMANY 


0 10<K)  20UO  ;<QUO  4000  5000 

i  •  of  Miles  along  the  Equator 

I M.-N.   WOBKS,    BUFF<10  . 


20 Longitude 4Q        East       60      from      80  OrceuwlclilOO  120 


THE   GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY  677 

that  is  to  say,  a  plan  to  organize  a  closer,  more  permanent,  and 
more  equal  union  among  the  different  parts  of  the  British  Empire, 
has  been  much  discussed.  With  this  view  several  conferences  of 
prime  ministers  of  the  various  colonies  have  been  called  by  the 
British  foreign  secretary,  although  not  much  has  been  so  far 
accomplished  by  them. 

The  "  diamond  jubilee  "  of  Queen  Victoria,  which  occurred  in 
1897,  was  celebrated  with  the  greatest  heartiness  in  all  parts  of 
the  empire.  To  England  itself  came  representatives  of  all  the 
colonies  and  of  all  the  races  living  under  the  British  crown,  and 
a  new  realization  of  the  significance  of  the  widespread  empire 
came  over  British  statesmen.  Poets  like  Kipling,  as  well  as  min- 
isters like  Chamberlain  and  colonial  men  of  enterprise  like  Cecil 
Rhodes,  have  devoted  themselves  to  the  extension  of  the  ideal  of 
imperial  unity.  When  Victoria's  long  and  useful  reign  finally 
came  to  an  end  in  1901,  and  the  prince  of  Wales  succeeded  to 
the  throne  as  Edward  VII,  the  same  idea  of  the  importance  of 
the  empire  as  a  whole  led  to  the  adoption  of  a  new  form  of  the 
title  of  the  sovereign.  This  was  declared  by  a  royal  proclamation 
issued  November  4,  1901,  to  be  "  Edward  the  Seventh,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, and  of  all  the  British  Dominions  beyond  the  Seas,  King, 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  Emperor  of  India." 

609.  Summary  of  the  Period  1852-1904.  —  The  last  fifty-two 
years  of  English  history  have  seen  more  of  war  than  either  the 
interests,  the  wishes,  or  the  moral  feelings  of  the  nation  have 
approved.  The  Crimean  War  of  1853-1856,  the  Sepoy  Rebellion 
of  1857  and  later  wars  in  India,  the  three  wars  with  China,  and 
many  others  in  New  Zealand,  Asia,  and  Africa,  culminating  in  the 
terrible  Boer  War  of  1899-1902,  make  up  a  list  of  hostilities  which 
are  felt  as  a  humiliation  rather  than  a  glory  by  most  thoughtful 
Englishmen.  Into  these  wars  England  has  been  drawn  for  the  most 
part  by  occurrences  connected  with  her  widespread  colonial  domin- 
ion, and  they  are  often  spoken  of  as  part  of  the  "cost  of  empire." 


6/8  A   SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

The  most  marked  internal  change  is  the  development  of  self- 
government  by  the  people,  both  in  England  and  in  the  colonies 
which  have  sprung  from  England.  The  years  1867  and  1884 
are  important  dates  not  only  in  this  period  but  in  all  English 
history.  As  a  result  of  the  reform  bills  passed  in  those  years  and 
of  the  measures  of  local  government  which  have  been  described, 
the  people  now  govern  themselves ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  sur- 
vival of  many  royal  and  aristocratic  forms,  England  has  become 
practically  a  democracy  with  universal  suffrage  and  complete  con- 
trol of  the  government  by  the  majority  of  the  population. 

This  form  of  government  has  undertaken  many  services  directed 
to  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  people,  some  of  which 
have  been  described  in  this  chapter,  but  many  of  which,  such  as 
provision  for  the  public  health,  the  later  laws  for  the  well-being 
of  the  working  classes,  and  others,  have  been  necessarily  omitted. 
The  government  has  come  more  and  more  to  act  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  its  duties  are  not  merely  military  and  political,  but  that 
it  must  do  what  can  be  done  to  make  the  people  happier  and 
more  comfortable. 

^ 

General  Reading.  —  MGCARTHY,  History  of  Our  Own  Times,  Vols.  II 
and  III,  although  rather  superficial,  contains  the  most  inclusive  account 
of  the  general  affairs  of  England  during  this  period.  BRIGHT,  History 
of  England^ v\&.  IV  and  V,  contains  a  detailed  and  impartial  narrative  of 
events  from  1837  to  1904.  Among  the  many  and  important  biographies  of 
public  men  of  this  period  may  be  mentioned  MORLEY,  Gladstone,  3  vols. ; 
RUSSELL,  Gladstone ;  FROUDE,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield ;  REID,  Lord  John 
Russell;  MCCARTHY.  Sir  Robert  Peel;  BULWER,  Palmerston;  LEE,  Queen 
Victoria.  BRYCE,  Studies  in  Contemporary  Biography,  contains  a  number  of 
excellent  short  accounts  of  prominent  men  of  the  period.  Several  of  the 
biographical  works  referred  to  at  the  conclusion  of  the  previous  chapter 
extend  into  this  period.  MALLESON,  The  Indian  Mutiny,  and  DE  WET,  The 
Three  Years'  War,  describe  the  Sepoy  Rebellion  and  the  Boer  War  respec- 
tively. ROSE,  Rise  and  Growth  of  Democracy  in  Great  Britain,  is  good. 
Among  works  concerning  the  colonies  some  of  the  best  are  DILKE,  Prob- 
lems of  Greater  Britain  ;  SEELEY,  The  Expansion  of  Britain  ;  JENKS,  The 
Australasian  Colonies;  BOURINOT,  Canada;  and  JOHNSTON,  The  Col- 
onization of  Africa, 


THE   GROWTH   OF   DEMOCRACY  679 

Contemporary  Sources.  —  Almost  all  recent  writings,  whether  govern- 
ment documents,  speeches,  biographies,  statistics,  newspapers,  or  even 
novels  and  poetry,  are  in  a  certain  sense  the  sources  for  the  history  of  the 
period  of  this  chapter,  since  they  are  the  only  materials  for  our  knowledge 
of  it  and  they  are  practically  contemporary  with  the  events  they  describe. 
Material  under  this  section  is  therefore  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from 
that  included  under  General  Reading  and  Poetry  and  Fiction.  A  num- 
ber of  documents  concerning  Australia  and  the  Transvaal  are  given  in 
LEE,  Source-Book,  Nos.  225-235 ;  relating  to  Irish  home  rule,  the  third 
reform  bill,  the  Sepoy  Rebellion,  the  American  War,  and  the  empire,  in 
KENDALL,  Source-Book,  Nos.  132,  133,  138,  140-151. 

Poetry  and  Fiction.  —  KIPLING,  Jungle  Book,  Kim,  Corporals  Three,  and 
The  Day's  Work,  give  a  realistic  impression  of  British  and  native  India 
as  it  is  at  the  present  time,  and  his  Seven  Seas  and  Five  Nations  reflect 
much  of  the  prevailing  imperialistic  sentiment.  Mrs.  STEELE,  On  the  Face 
of  the  Waters,  is  a  story  of  the  Sepoy  Rebellion.  BESANT,  Children  of 
Gibeon,  is  a  stoiy  of  labor  conditions  in  London. 

Special  Topics.  —  (i)  Exploration  of  the  World  by  Englishmen, 
TRAILL,  Social  England,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  656-681;  (2)  Literature  at  the 
Close  of  the  Century,  ibid.,  pp.  510-520;  (3)  The  English  Military  and 
Naval  System,  ibid.,  pp.  482-509;  (4)  Transatlantic  Navigation,  ibid., 
pp.  392-404 ;  (5)  The  Sepoy  Rebellion,  MCCARTHY,  History  of  Our  Own 
Times,  Vol.  II,  chaps,  xxxii-xxxv ;  (6)  The  "  Alabama,"  ibid.,  chaps,  xliv 
and  Ix ;  (7)  Fenianism,  ibid.,  chap,  liii ;  (8)  The  Home-Rule  Bill,  ibid., 
Vol.  Ill,  chap,  x ;  (9)  English  Opinion  on  the  Trent  Affair,  KENDALL, 
Source-Book,  No.  145 ;  (10)  English  Opinion  on  Lincoln,  ibid.,  No.  146. 


INDEX 


Abhorrers,  487 

Acts.     See  Statutes 

Adela,  daughter  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  113 

jElfric,  75 

^Ethelbald  of  Mercia,  54 

^thelflaed,  70 

^Ethelstan,  king  of  Wessex,  70 ; 
title  of,  71  ;  and  battle  of  Brunan- 
burh,  73 

^thelwulf,  60 

Africa,  early  voyages  to,  356 

Agincourt,  battle  of,  267 

Agreement  of  the  People,  454 

Agricola,  22 

Aidan,  47 

Aix  la  Chapelle,  Peace  of,  559 

Akbar,  565 

"  Alabama,"  the,  654 

Alan  of  Brittany,  102 

Albert,  Prince,  632,  642 

Albion,  4 

Alen9on,  duke  of,  346 

Alfred  the  Great,  and  the  Danes, 
63,  65  ;  character  of,  64,  68  ;  mili- 
tary reforms  of,  65 ;  laws  of,  66 ; 
work  of,  for  education,  67  ;  influ- 
ence of,  69;  titles  of,  71 

Alva,  duke  of,  352 

America,  discovery  of,  286 ;  French 
and  English  in,  560;  grievances 
in,  585 

American  Civil  War,  attitude  of 
England  towards,  653 

American  Revolution,  592 

Amiens,  Mise  of,  209 

Angevin  line  of  kings,  145 

Angle-land,  40 

Angles,  36,  37 

Anglicanism,  385 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  58,  61,  68, 
73»  HO 


681 


Anglo-Saxons,  language  of,  39 ;  re- 
ligion of,  41  ;  life  and  government 
of,  42  ;  internal  strife  among,  53  ; 
life  of,  in  the  tenth  century,  71 ; 
political  organization  of,  78 ; 
classes  and  ranks  of,  82 

Annates,  Acts  of,  298 

Anne,  Queen,  accession  of,  531 ;  rela- 
tions of,  with  the  Marlboroughs, 
531  ;  political  parties  under,  539 

Anne  Boleyn,  294,  308 

Anne  of  Cleves,  309 

Anselm,  and  William  Rufus,  117; 
and  investiture  struggle,  122, 124, 
140 

Anti-Corn-Law  League,  640 

Appeals,  Act  of,  298,  308 

Aquitaine,  230 

Architecture,  of  Norman  period,  141; 
in  thirteenth  century,  187  ;  in  time 
of  Elizabeth,  371 ;  in  Restoration 
period,  494 

Arden  forest,  8 

Arkwright,  579 

Armada,  the  Spanish,  364 

Army,  Danish,  6r  ;  in.  time  of 
Edward  III,  236;  New  Model, 
447 ;  standing,  490 ;  reorganiza- 
tion of,  66 1 

Arthur  of  Brittany,  174 

Assiento  Treaty,  535 

Assize,  Great,  149;  of  Clarendon, 
151,  1 63  ;  of  Arms,  1 54 

Assizes,  149 

Attainder,  bills  of,  309,  435 

Augustine,  introduces  Christianity 
into  Britain,  44 ;  is  made  arch- 
bishop, 46 

Augustinians,  159 

Australasian  federation  and  self- 
government,  671 

Australia,  572,  669,  671 


682 


A   SHORT   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 


Austrian   Succession,   War  of  the, 

558 

Babington's  Plot,  361 

Bacon,  Roger,  190 

Bacon,  Sir  Francis,  376,  379,  398, 
400 

Baffin,  355 

Balaclava,  battle  of,  647 

Baliol,  John,  chosen  king  of  Scot- 
land, 222  ;  deposed,  224 

Ballot,  introduction  of,  660 

Bank  of  England,  527 

Bannockburn,  battle  of,  226 

Baptists,  446,  460,  470 

Barons,  struggle  of,  with  William 
II,  113;  struggle  of,  with  Henry  I, 
124;  revolt  of,  against  Henry  II, 
1 66 ;  rebel  against  John,  179  ;  wars 
of,  209 

Bastille,  capture  of  the,  603 

Battle  Abbey,  105 

Bayeux  Tapestry,  93 

Beachy  Head,  battle  of,  521 

Becket,  Thomas,  148;  early  career 
of,  161  ;  made  archbishop,  161  ; 
and  Constitutions  of  Clarendon, 
162;  exile  and  death  of,  164 

Bede,  53  ;  Ecclesiastical  History  of, 

53 

Beowulf,  40 

Berlin  Decree,  613 

Bernicia,  37 

Bicameral  system,  214 

Bible,  in  Anglo-Saxon,  75  ;  in  Eng- 
lish, 253!  307  ;  new  translation  of, 
390 ;  translation  of,  attributed  to 
Wy  cliff  e,  253 

Bill  of  Rights,  510 

Bishoprics,  establishment  of,  49 

Bishops  and  abbots  in  Norman 
England,  104 

Bishop's  Wars,  the,  433 

Black  country,  6 

Black  Death,  243 

Black  Prince,  238,  247 

Blake,  457 

Blenheim,  battle  of,  533 

Bloody  Assizes,  499 

Boadicea,  21 

Boer  War,  674 


Boers,  673 

Bologna,  University  of,  191 

Boniface  of  Savoy,  205 

"Bonnie  Dundee,"  518 

Bordeaux,  defeat  of  English  at,  269 

Boston  Massacre,  589 

Bosworth,  battle  of,  274 

Botany  Bay,  572,  669 

Boyne,  battle  of  the,  516 

Bracton,  191 

Braddock,  General,  561 

Bradshaw,  468 

Breda,  Declaration  of,  466 

Bretigny,  Peace  of,  241,  246 

Bright,  John,  640,  665 

Bristol,  5 

Britain,  early  inhabitants  of,  2  ;  first 
knowledge  of,  14;  organized  as  a 
Roman  province,  20,  22 ;  under 
Roman  rule,  23 ;  decay  of,  30 ; 
after  withdrawal  of  the  Romans, 
33 ;  attacked  by  Picts  and  Scots, 
36 ;  conquered  by  Angles  and 
Saxons,  36 

British  Isles,  geography  of,  i ;  size 
of,  3 

Britons,  tribes  of,  17;  wars  among, 
17;  customs  of  the,  17;  religion 
of,  18;  insurrections  of,  21 

Brougham,  Lord,  633 

Bruce,  Robert,  222 

Bruce,  Robert,  the  younger,  225 

Brunanburh,  battle  of,  73 

Brythons,  16 

Buckingham,  George  Villiers,  duke 

°f,  395,  397,  413,  4i6 
Bunyan,  John,  492 
Burgoyne,  General,  592 
Burial  mounds,  12 
Burke,  Edmund,  591,  604 
Burleigh,  331 
Burma,  651 
Bute,  577 

Cabal,  the,  483,  526 

Cabinet  government,  development 
of,  526 

Cabot,  John  Sebastian,  285 

Cadiz,  destruction  of  ships  at,364 ;  ex- 
pedition against,  under  Charles  I, 
412 


INDEX 


683 


Caedmon,  53 

Caerleon,  23 

Caesar,  Julius,  invades  Britain,  14 

Calais,  237,  292,  323 

Calcutta,  Black  Hole  of,  569 

Caledonia,  22,  48 

Caledonians,  16,  31 

Calendar,  reform  of  the,  560 

Cambridge,  188,  195 

Camden,  376 

Canada,  564,  667-669 

Canning,  George,  619 

Canon  law,  158 

Canons,  108;  of  cathedrals,  156 

Canterbury,  45;  cathedral  of, 
founded,  46;  archbishopric  of, 
founded,  50 ;  election  of  arch- 
bishop of,  175 

Canute.     See  Cnut 

Cape  Colony,  672,  675 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  672 

Cape  St.  Vincent,  victory  off,  611 

Caractacus,  20,  21 

Cardinals,  206 

Carteret,  Lord,  562 

Carthusians,  194 

Cartwright,  Thomas,  347 

Castle,  the  mediaeval,  132  • 

Castles  of  William  the  Conqueror, 

97 1  98 

Cathedrals,  195;  building  of,  after 
the  Norman  Conquest,  105 

Catherine  Howard,  309 

Catherine  of  Aragon,  279,  290,  293 

Catherine  Parr,  309 

Catholic  Association,  621 

Cavaliers,  443 

Cawnpore,  650 

Caxton,  William,  288 

Cecil,  Sir  Robert,  379 

Cecil,  Sir  William,  331 

Celtic  races,  16,  48 

Celtic  tribes,  location  of,  15 

Celts  in  Britain,  32 

Ceorls,  42,  82 

Cerdic,  38,  56,  121 

Chalk  cliffs,  36 

Chamberlain,  Joseph,  665,  677 

Channel  freebooters,  360 

Chantries,  foundation  of,  272 ;  dis- 
solution of,  312 


Chapter,  the  cathedral,  157 

Charles  I,  marries  Henrietta  Maria, 
396;  accession  of,  410;  character 
of,  411;  foreign  wars  of,  411; 
quarrels  of,  with  parliament,  413 ; 
personal  government  of,  418  ;  tries 
to  coerce  the  Scotch  Presbyte- 
rians, 432 ;  summons  parliament, 
433 ;  attempts  to  seize  the  five 
members,  440;  and  militia,  441; 
Civil  War  and,  442 ;  trial  and 
execution  of,  451 

Charles  II,  453 ;  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land declare  for,  455 ;  accession 
of,  466 ;  action  of  parliament 
under,  467 ;  and  Dutch  war,  478, 
481 ;  and  France,  480,  482  ;  life 
in  reign  of,  496 ;  death  of,  498 

Charles  Edward,  the  Young  Pre- 
tender, 549 

Charles  V  of  Spain,  292,  294 

Charles  the  Great,  influence  of,  on 
Egbert,  56 

Charter,  of  Henry  1, 1 20 ;  of  Stephen, 
129 ;  the  Great,  180 ;  of  towns,  197, 
489,  506;  the  People's,  636 

Chartism,  635 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  256,  289 

Childe,  83 

Chippenham,  Treaty  of,  63 

Chivalry,  239,  240 

Christianity,  in  Roman  Britain,  30; 
spread  of,  47 

Church,  Celtic,  48 

Church,  Roman,  in  Kent,  44 ;  in 
Northumbria,  46 ;  organization  of, 
49 ;  influence  on  Danes,  64 ;  under 
Dunstan,  78;  under  William  I, 
104 ;  under  William  II,  117;  under 
Henry  I,  122;  under  Henry  II, 
156-161;  quarrel  of,  with  John, 
175;  under  Henry  III,  205-207; 
conflicts  with,  in  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, 242  ;  Wycliffe  and  the,  251 ; 
attack  on,  by  Henry  VIII,  296, 
298;  struggle  of,  against  Protest- 
antism, 306,  321 ;  restored  under 
Mary  Tudor,  324 ;  attitude  of 
Elizabeth  towards,  332,  334 ; 
reformation  in,  347 ;  work  of 
Jesuits  for,  348 ;  and  Gunpowder 


684 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


Plot,  391 ;  attitude  of  Charles  II 
towards,  469, 472 ;  under  James  II, 
503 ;  emancipation  of,  62 1 

Church  of  England,  385,  439,  445, 
469,  514 

Cistercians,  159,  194 

Clarendon  Code,  471 

Clarendon,  Constitutions  of,  162, 165 

Clarendon,  Edward  Hyde,  earl  of, 
482 

Clarkson,  609 

Claudius,  invasion  by,  20 

Clemens,  Maximus,  32 

Cliffs,  4,  36 

Clive,  Robert,  569 

Close  boroughs,  598 

Cluniacs,  159,  194 

Cnut,  king  of  England,  86;  char- 
acter of  rule  of,  87 ;  earldoms  of, 
87  ;  successors  of,  87 

Cobbett,  William,  617 

Cobden,  Richard,  640 

Coffee,  introduced,  496 

Coinage,  debasement  of,  318;  resto- 
ration of,  under  Elizabeth,  337 

Coins, earliest  in  Britain,  17;  Roman, 
28 

Colchester,  20 

Colet,  John,  287,  288 

Colonies,  attempted  in  Newfound- 
land, 354;  Virginia,  354,  403; 
Plymouth,  405 ;  Massachusetts 
Bay,  405 ;  island,  405 ;  of  Nova 
Scotia,  559 ;  new,  in  America,  587  ; 
English  seizure  of  French,  612; 
summary  of,  666 

Columbus,  285 

Committee  of  both  Kingdoms,  444 

Common  law,  153 

Commonwealth,  the,  453 

Commonwealth  of  Australia,  672 

Compurgation,  80 

Confirmation  of  the  charters,  215 

Conservative  party,  633,  657,  661 

Constitutional  Society,  603 

Continental  System,  613 

Conventicles,  470 

Cook,  Captain  James,  572 

Cope,  Sir  John,  549 

Corn-Law  League,  639 

Corn  Laws,  abolition  of,  641 


Cornwall,  6 

Cornwallis,  Lord,  593 

Cotters,  200 

Council  of  the  North,  427  ;  abolition 
of,  437 

Councils  of  the  Norman  kings,  109 

Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore,  31 

Counter  reformation,  347 

County  councils,  664 

Courts,  under  Henry  I,  127;  under 
Henry  II,  146,  153;  of  church, 
157,  162;  manor,  201  ;  of  Star 
Chamber,  281,  291,  421,  437  ;  of 
High  Commission,  334,  421,  437, 
501 ;  of  Marches  of  Wales,  437; 
High,  of  Justice,  451;  Ecclesi- 
astical Commission,  501,  503,  506. 
See  Curia  Regis  and  Exchequer 

Coverdale's  Bible,  307 

Craft  gilds,  198 

Cranmer,  Archbishop,  308,  310,  325 

Crecy,  battle  of,  234,  236 

Crimean  War,  646 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  present  at  Long 
Parliament,  434  ;  leader  of  Round- 
heads, 444 ;  organizes  the  New 
Model  army,  447 ;  at  Naseby, 
448 ;  conquers  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land, 455 ;  expels  Long  Parlia- 
ment, 457  ;  character  of,  458 ;  the 
Protector,  460 ;  death  of,  463 

Cromwell,  Richard,  463 

Cromwell,  Thomas,  300,  307 

Crusade,  First,  171  ;  Third,  171 ;  in- 
fluence of,  173;  Edward  partici- 
pates in,  209 

Crystal  Palace,  642 

Culloden  Moor,  battle  of,  550 

Cunobeline,  17 

Curfew,  1 10 

Curia  Regis,  126-128,  147,  148 

Cymbeline,  17 

Cyprus,  island  of,  662 

Danby,  earl  of,  485 

Danegeld,  86,  109,  115 

Danelaw,  62,  63,  65,  69,  88 

Danes,  first  incursions  of,  59;  rav- 
ages of,  61,  65  ;  settlements  of, 
62  ;  as  traders,  63  ;  peace  of  Alfred 
with,  63 ;  as  founders  of  cities,  64; 


INDEX 


685 


Five  Boroughs  of,  64 ;  influence  of 
Christianity  on,  64 ;  new  invasions 

by,  85 

Danish  axes,  60,  61 

Darnley,  343 

Davis,  John,  355 

Davison  executes  death  warrant  of 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  362,  363 

Declaration  of  Rights,  509 

Declaration  of  Sports,  424 

Declarations  of  Indulgence,  of 
Charles  II,  472 ;  of  James  II,  503 

Defoe,  493 

Deira,  37 

Delhi,  565,  650 

Demesne,  201 

Democracy  in  England,  664,  678 

Denmark,  foundation  of,  85 

Dettingen,  battle  of,  558 

Devon,  6 

Dispensing  power,  472,  501 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  earl  of  Beacons- 
field,  657,  658,  661,  662 

Dissenters,  470,  504,  541 

Distraint  of  knighthood,  424 

Divine  right  of  kings,  388 

Domesday  Book,  in,  196 

Dominicans,  194 

Dominion  of  Canada,  669 

Dooms,  Anglo-Saxon,  66 

Dover,  Strait  of,  2 

Dover,  Treaty  of,  481 

Drake,  Francis,  358,  364,  367 

Druids,  18,  21,  42 

Dryden,  490,  493 

Dudley,  Robert,  earl  of  Leicester, 

345 

Dunbar,  battle  of,  455 
Dunkirk,  480 
Dunstan,  76,  77 
Dupleix,  567 
Duquesne,  Fort,  564 
Durham,  5 
Dutch  war  of  the  Commonwealth, 

456 

Dutch  wars  under  Charles  II,  479, 
481 

Ealdorman,  37,  79,  85 

Earl,  79,  104 

Earldoms,  construction  of  great,  85 


East  India  Company,  354,  405,  568, 
649,  651 

Easter,  different  customs  concern- 
ing, 48 

Edgar  yEtheling,  96,  97 

Edgar  the  Peaceful,  71 

Edgehill,  battle  of,  443 

Edinburgh,  foundation  of,  54 

Edmund,  61 

Edward,  son  of  Alfred,  69 

Edward  the  Confessor,  87,  89 

Edward  I,  209-226;  wins  Evesham, 
209  ;  on  crusade,  209 ;  accession 
of,  209;  love  of,  for  England,  210 ; 
character  of,  213;  creates  full 
parliament,  213;  great  statutes  of, 
215;  expels  Jews,  216;  invades 
Wales,  219;  conquers  Scotland, 
224 ;  death  of,  225 

Edward  II,  225,  227 

Edward  III,  227 ;  claim  of,  to  French 
throne,  231 ;  makes  war  on  France, 

233 

Edward  IV,  accession  of,  271; 
death  of,  272 

Edward  V,  murder  of,  274 

Edward  VI,  birth  of,  308 ;  accession 
of,  310;  death  of,  320 

Edward  VII,  accession  of,  677 

Edwin,  earl  of  Mercia,  95 

Edwin  of  Deira,  46,  54 

Egbert,  56,  59,  64 

Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  146 

Eleanor  of  Provence,  204 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  414,  418,  420 

Elizabeth  Tudor,  Queen,  birth  of, 
308 ;  accession  of,  330 ;  religious 
policy  of,  332 ;  foreign  policy  of, 
335  ;  pauperism  under,  338 ;  court 
of,  339 ;  imprisons  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  345;  dallies  with  marriage 
plans,  346,  351 ;  excommunicated, 
349;  plots  against,  350,  361 ;  and 
war  with  Spain,  363  ;  poor  law  of, 
367  ;  life  under,  369 ;  closing  years 
°f>  379 !  greatness  of,  380 

Elizabeth  of  York,  274,  278 

Emma,  mother  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, 89 

England,  isolation  of,  2  ;  size  of,  3 ; 
situation  of,  3;  surface  of,  5; 


686 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


climate  of,  6 ;  forests  of,  7  ;  natural 

products  of,  10 
Engle,  40  n. 
English  on  the  sea,  361 
Eorls,  42,  82 

Episcopacy,  518;  in  Scotland,  431 
Erasmus,  286 
Ermine  Street,  43 
Essex,  Robert  Devereux,  earl  of,  379 
Ethelbert  of  Kent,  45  ;  code  of,  66 
Etheling,  83 

Ethelred  II,  the  Unready,  85,  86,  89 
Ethelwulf,  64 
Evangelical  clergy,  555 
Evesham,  battle  of,  209 
Exchequer,  127,  128,  426 
Exclusion  bills,  474,  476 

Fairfax,  448,  454 

Fairs,  199 

Falaise,  Treaty  of,  167 

Falkland,  443 

Familists,  460 

Fawkes,  Guy,  392 

Federal  Council  for  Australia,  672 

Fens,  8 

Feudal  dependence  of  England  on 
pope,  179 

Feudal  dues,  135 

Feudal  land  tenure,  133 

Feudal  taxation,  155 

Feudal  tenures,  abolition  of,  468 

Feudalism,  under  William  the  Con- 
queror, 103  ;  under  Stephen,  133- 
137;  personal  relations  of,  136; 
political  powers  given  by,  136;  in 
Saxon  period,  137  ;  effect  of  Nor- 
man Conquest  on,  138;  peculiari- 
ties of,  in  England,  138 

Fief,  133 

Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  292 

Field  preaching,  553 

Fire  in  London,  493 

Fisher,  Bishop,  execution  of,  303 

Five  Boroughs,  64 

Flanders,  English  and  French  inter- 
ests in,  231 

Flemish  trade  with  England,  273 

Florence  of  Worcester,  141 

Folk-right,  80,  81 

Fontenoy,  battle  of,  559 


Forest  Charter,  216 

Forest  laws,  109 

Forests  and  swamps,  7,  9 

Forests  under  Charles  I,  425 

Fort  Duquesne,  561 

Forty-five  and  Wilkes,  584 

Fosse-way,  44 

Fotheringay  Castle,  362 

Fox,  Charles  James,  591,  604,  610 

France,  war  with,  under  Charles  I, 

412 

Francis  of  Assisi,  194 
Francis  I  of  France,  292 
Franciscans,  194 
Freemen  on  the  manors,  202 
French  and  Indian  War,  564 
French  Revolution,  602 
Friars,  194 

Friends  of  the  People,  603 
Frisians,  36 
Frobisher,  Martin,  355 
Fyrd,  60,  65,  79,  154 

Gaels,  16 

Garter,  Order  of  the,  241 

Geneva  award,  655 

Geoffrey,  count  of  Anjou,  129,  145, 

174 

Geoffrey,  duke  of  Brittany,  168 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  141 

George  I,  accession  of,  542  ;  govern- 
ment of,  547 

George  II,  accession  of,  548  ;  death 
of,  576 

George  III,  accession  of,  576;  dis- 
misses Pitt,  577  ;  American  policy 
of,  589  ;  close  of  personal  rule  of, 
595  ;  death  of,  623 

George  IV,  623 

George,  prince  of  Denmark,  hus- 
band of  Queen  Anne,  532 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  354 

Gild  merchant,  198 

Gilds,  religious,  312 

Giraldus  Cambrensis,  171 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart,  enters 
House  of  Commons,  656 ;  changes 
views,  656;  becomes  Prime 
Minister,  657  ;  reform  administra- 
tion of,  659 ;  resigns,  661  ;  again 
Prime  Minister,  662 ;  defeated  on 


INDEX 


687 


Home    Rule    Bill,    665;     Prime 

Minister  in  1892,  665;  death  of, 

666 

Glastonbury,  76 
Glencoe   massacre  of,  519 
Glendower,  265 
Gloucester  Cathedral,  cloisters  of, 

276 

Godwin,  90,  92 
Goidels,  16 
Good  Hope,  discovery  of  the  route 

around  Cape  of,  285 
Gordon,  Lord  George,  600 
Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  355 
Grand  Alliance,  531 
Grand  Remonstrance,  437 
Gratian,  158 
Grattan,  Henry,  594 
Great  Assize,  149 
Greek,  study  of,  in  England,  52 
Greenwich  Hospital,  522 
Gregory  VII,  107 
Gregory  and  the  English  slaves  at 

Rome,  44 

Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  354 
Grey,  Earl,  624,  633 
Grocyn,  287 

Grosseteste,  Robert,  191 
Guineas,  479 
Gulf  Stream,  7 
Gunpowder  Plot,  391 
Guthrum,  63 

Hadrian,  the  monk,  52 

Hadrian's  wall,  25 

Hakluyt's  Voyages,  376 

Hampden,  John,  426,  443 

Hampton  Court  Conference,  389 

Hanseatic  traders,  273 

Harbors,  4 

Harold  Hardrada,  94 

Harold,  son  of  Cnut,  87 

Harold,  son  of  Godwin,  90-92 ;  ac- 
knowledged king  by  Edward,  93  ; 
at  Stamford  Bridge,  95  ;  defeated 
and  killed  at  Hastings,  96 

Harthacnut,  87 

Hastings,  battle  of,  95 

Hastings,  Warren,  649 

Hawkins,  John,  voyages  of,  355 

Hengist  and  Horsa,  37 


Henrietta  Maria,  wife  of  Charles  I, 
396,  480 

Henry  I,  accession  of,  119;  charter 
of,  120;  marriage  of,  120;  charac- 
ter of,  121 ;  conquers  Normandy, 
121 ;  and  church,  122  ;  struggle  of, 
with  barons,  124;  administration 
of,  125 

Henry  II,  accession  of,  140,  145; 
character  of,  145;  dominions  of, 
146;  administration  of,  148-155; 
church  under,  156-161;  quarrel 
with  Becket,  161-166;  new  revolt 
against,  166;  wars  with  Scotland, 
Wales,  and  Ireland,  167 ;  last 
years  of,  168 

Henry  III,  accession  of,  186;  char- 
acter of,  186 ;  favorites  of,  204 ; 
quarrels  with  Pope,  205,  207  ;  and 
barons,  208 ;  death  of,  209 

Henry  IV,  accession  of,  259 ;  parlia- 
ment under,  264 ;  wars  of,  265 

Henry  V,  267,  268 

Henry  VI,  accession  of,  268 ;  death 
of,  272 

Henry  VII,  accession  of,  274 ;  title 
of,  278;  struggle  of,  for  throne, 
279;  children  of,  279;  character 
of,  280;  government  of,  281  ;  pol- 
icy of,  284 ;  death  of,  289 

Henry  VIII,  279 ;  accession  of,  289 ; 
divorce  question  of,  293 ;  excom- 
municated, 303 ;  marries  Anne 
Boleyn,  308 ;  death  of,  309 

Henry  of  Huntingdon,  141 

Henry,  son  of  James  I,  394 

Heptarchy,  39 

Heraldry,  239 

Herebehrt,  60 

Hereford  Cathedral,  142 

Heresy,  definition  of,  252 

Hereward,  98 

Hertford,  Synod  of,  50 

Highland  regiments,  563 

Hildebrand,  Pope,  107 

Hill,  Rowland,  631 

Holmby  House,  449 

Holyrood  palace,  341 

Honorius,  32 

Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  376 

Hotham,  Sir  John,  442 


688 


A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


Hotspur,  266 

House  of  Commons,  origin  of,  214; 
petition  James  I,  409 

House  of  Lords,  origin  of,  214; 
abolition  of,  454 ;  coercion  of,  541, 
626 

Housecarls,  87,  95 

Howard,  Lord,  of  Effingham,  364 

Howel,  70 

Hudson,  Henry,  355 

Huguenots,  412 

Humanism  in  England,  287 

Hundred  mote,  80 

Hundred  Years'  War,  beginning  of, 
231,  233;  events  of,  233-242;  re- 
newal of,  246;  under  Henry  V, 
267 

Hundreds,  80 

Iceni,  21 

Icknield-way,  44 

Imperial  federation,  676 

Imperial  policy,  66 1 

Inclosures,  314,  582 

Independence,  Declaration  of 
American,  588 

Independents,  447,  450 

India,  English  settlements  in,  565  ; 
Clive  in,  569;  after  Clive,  649; 
rebellion  in,  650 ;  empire  of,  651 

Industrial  Revolutions,  578 

Innocent  III,  quarrels  with  John, 
176;  and  the  king  of  France,  205 

Instrument  of  government,  460 

Interdict  of  1208-1213,  177 

Investiture,  struggle  under  William 
Rufus,  118;  strife  about,  123 

lona,  49 

Ireland,  conquest  of,  167 ;  under 
Henry  VII  and  Henry  VIII,  304 ; 
under  Wentworth,  427  ;  rebellion 
in,  439  ;  conquered  by  Cromwell, 
455  ;  resists  William  III,  517  ;  in 
eighteenth  century,  537 ;  home 
rule  in,  593,  664;  revolution  in, 
606 ;  union  of,  with  England,  606 ; 
in  nineteenth  century,  608 ;  pro- 
posed repeal  of  union  with,  637  ; 
famine  in,  638 ;  emigration  from, 
639 ;  land  law  of  1870  for,  660 ; 
home  rule  for,  664 


Ireton,  455,  468 

Iron,  10,  582 

"  Ironsides,"  445 

Italian  churchmen  in  England,  207 

Jacobins,  English,  605 

Jacobite  party,  518,  523,  542,  543 

Jamaica,  capture  of,  462 

James  I,  birth  of,  343 ;  accession 
of,  383  ;  character  of,  384 ;  politi- 
cal theory  of,  385;  attitude  of, 
towards  Puritans,  389 ;  attitude  of, 
towards  Catholics,  391  ;  foreign 
policy  of,  393 ;  proposes  Spanish 
and  French  marriages,  394;  colo- 
nization under,  403;  struggles 
with  Parliament,  407;  death  of, 
410 

James  II,  accession  of,  498 ;  upris- 
ing against,  499 ;  tyranny  of,  500  ; 
issues  a  Declaration  of  Indul- 
gence, 503 ;  birth  of  son  to,  505 ; 
flight  of,  508  ;  deposition  of,  508 ; 
loses  at  Boyne,  516 

James  III,  the  Pretender,  531,  543 

Jamestown,  foundation  of,  403 

Jane  Grey,  319,  321 

Jane  Seymour,  308 

Jarls,  62 

Jeffreys,  Chief  Justice,  500 

Jenkins's  Ear,  War  of,  557 

Jesuits,  348 

Jewries,  217 

Jews,  position  of,  in  England,  217; 
protected  by  the  king,  218  ;  expul- 
sion of,  by  Edward  I,  219 

Jingo  policy,  662 

Joan  of  Arc,  268 

John,  king  of  England,  174;  loses 
continental  provinces,  174;  and 
church,  175,  178;  character  of, 
178;  acknowledges  pope  as  suze- 
rain, 178;  rebellion  against,  179; 
signs  the  Great  Charter,  180; 
tries  to  revoke  Great  Charter, 
1 86;  death  of,  186 

John  of  Gaunt,  246,  270 

Jonson,  Ben,  377 

Judicial  assizes,  148 

Junius  Letters,  585 

Junto,  the  Whig,  526 


INDEX 


689 


Justices  on  circuit,  127 
Justiciar,  125 
Jutes,  36,  38 

Kenilworth,  345 
Kentishmen,  38 
Killiecrankie,  battle  of,  518 
Kimberley,  673 
Kingmaker,  the,  272 
Kirk-a-Field,  344 
Kit's  Coty  House,  13,  14 
Knighthood,  239 
Knights  Hospitallers,  240 
Knights  Templars,  240 
Knox,  John,  342 

La  Hogue,  battle  of,  521 
Lake  district,  the,  6 
Lambert  Simnel,  279 
Lancaster  and  York,  270 
Lanfranc,  108,  115,  116,  140,  142 
Langland,  William,  255 
Langton,  Stephen,  176,  180 
Language,  origin  of  the  English,  40; 

increased  use  of  English,  255 
Lateran  Council,  151 
Latimer,  307 

Laud,  William,  420,  423,  436 
Laws,  of  Alfred,  66,  82  ;  of  William 

the   Conqueror,    109;  concerning 

paupers,    339;     recusancy,    349; 

poor  law,  368.    See  also  Charters, 

Assizes,  Statutes. 
Leicester,  earl  of,  345 
Leicester,  town  hall  of,  197 
Leighton,  Alexander,  422 
Lely,  Sir  Peter,  495 
Lenthall,  441 
Lewes,  battle  of,  209 
Lexington,  battle  of,  590 
Liberal  party,  633,  655 
Liberal  Unionists,  665 
Liberty  of  the  press,  513 
Light  Brigade,  charge  of  the,  647 
Limerick,  Treaty  of,  517 
Linacre,  287 
Lincoln,  24,  25 
Lindisfame,  47,  49,  60 
Litany  in  English,  308 
Literature,    of    early    Saxons,    40, 

50 ;  under  Alfred,  67  ;   of  tenth 


century,  73 ;  of  Norman  period, 
140;  under  Henry  II,  170;  of 
fourteenth  century,  255 ;  under 
Elizabeth,  374 ;  under  Charles  II, 

49° 

Liverpool,  5 

Llewelyn,  prince  of  Wales,  220 
Local  self-government,  664 
Lollards,  252-254,  325,  335 
Lords  Marchers  of  Wales,  266 
Lords  Ordainers,  227 
Louis  XIV,  479,  480,  482,  520,  530, 

544 

Louis  Philippe,  624 
Lucknow,  650 

Macadam,  581 
McMurrough,  Dermot,  168 
Magdalen  College,  fellows  of,  503, 

506 

Magellan,  Straits  of,  359 
Magna   Carta,   events    leading   to, 

180;  character  of,  181 ;   attempt 

to  revoke,  186;  confirmation  of, 

1 86,  216 
Mahrattas,  566 
Malcolm,  king  of  Scots,  107 
Maldon,  battle  of,  74 
Malplaquet,  battle  of,  534 
Manchester  Massacre,  618 
Mar,  rising  under  the  earl  of,  543 
Marches  of  England,  Scotland,  and 

Wales,  220. 
Marlborough,  John  Churchill,  duke 

of,  S31*  533'  540 
Marlborough,  Lady,  532,  541 
Marston  Moor,  battle  of,  444 
Mary  Tudor,  Queen,  294,  319 ;  char- 
acter of,  320  ;    Catholic  reaction 
under,    321;    marries    Philip    II, 
322 ;  persecutions  of,  324 ;  death 
of,  326 
Mary,  Queen,  daughter  of  James  II, 

475'  505 

Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  char- 
acter of,  340  ;  position  of,  in  Scot- 
land, 342 ;  marriage  of,  343 ;  ex- 
pulsion of,  from  Scotland  and 
imprisonment  in  England,  344, 
349  ;  trial  and  execution  of,  362 

Mason  and  Slidell,  653 


690 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


Matilda,  wife  of  Henry  I,  120 
Matilda,  daughter  of  Henry  I,  129; 

war  with  Stephen,  130,  140 
Matthew  Paris,  165,  192,  194 
"  Mayflower,"  405 
Medeshamstead,  61 
Melbourne,  Lord,  632 
Mendicant  orders,  194 
Merchants  Adventurers,  285,  352 
Mercia,  kingdom  of,  38  ;  rise  of,  54, 

56 

Mercians,  69 

Mersey,  5 

Merton  College,  189 

Methodism,  rise  of,  551 

Methuen  Treaty,  535 

Metropolitical  visitation,  423 

Milan  Decree,  613 

Military  service,  103 

Militia,  struggle  for,  between  Charles 
I  and  parliament,  441 

Milton,  John,  446,  490 

Ministers  under  Henry  I,  125 

Mona,  island  of,  a  refuge  for  Druids, 
21 

Monasteries,  early,  51  ;  influence  of, 
51;  learning  in,  76;  decay  of, 
299;  dissolution  of,  301;  sup- 
pressed in  Ireland,  304 

Moneyers,  72,  73 

Monk,  General,  464 

Monmouth,  James,  duke  of,  475, 477, 

499 

Monopolies  under  Charles  I,  425 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  287,  303 
Morkere,  earl  of  Northumbria,  95,  97 
Morton's  fork,  282 
Muscovy  Company,  353 

Namur,  capture  of,  by  William  III, 

522 

Napoleon,  610,  614 
Naseby,  battle  of,  448 
Natal,  673,  675 

National  Covenant  of  Scotland,  432 
National  debt,  creation  of,  527 
Naval  supremacy  of  England,  535 
Navigation  Acts,  456,  478,  586,  641 
Nelson,  Horatio,  61 1 
Neolithic  men,  13 
New  Amsterdam,  479 


Newcastle,  duke  of,  562 
Newfoundland,  first  settlement  of, 

354 

New  learning,  287,  305,  327,  330 
New  Orleans,  battle  of,  613 
New  South  Wales,  572,  670 
Newspapers,  497 
New  Zealand,  669,  671 
Nightingale,  Florence,  648 
Nile,  battle  of  the,  6n 
Nominated  parliament,  460 
Nomination  boroughs,  598 
Norham,  award  of,  221 
Norman-French  language,  106 
Normandy,  origin  of,  88 ;  extent  of, 
in  the  eleventh  century,  89 ;  early 
connection  of,  with  England,  89, 
91 ;  under  William  I,  92  ;  loss  of, 
by  John,  175;  Edward  III  gives 
up  claim  to,  242 

Normans,  victory  of,  at  Hastings,  95  ; 
importance  of  conquest  of,  100; 
obtain  estates  of  English  nobles, 
102;  fusion  of,  with  English,  106; 
architecture  of,  141 
North,  Lord,  577,  591,  595 
Northmen,  59  ;  in  France,  88 
Northwest  passage,  search  for  a,  355 
Northumberland,  duke  0^317,  320 
Northumbria,  conversion,  46 ;  great- 
ness of,  54 

Norway,  foundation  of,  85 
Nottingham,  442 

Gates,  Titus,  473 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  621,  637 

Odo,  102 

Offa  of  Mercia,  56 

Ohio  Company,  561 

Olaf  of  Norway,  86 

Opium  war,  652 

Orange,  prince  of,  350 

Orange  River  Colony,  675 

Orange  River  Free  State,  673 

Ordeal,  of  hot  iron,  81 ;  of  water,  81 ; 

forbidden,  151 
Orders  in  Council,  613 
Oriel  College,  191 
Orleans,  siege  of,  268 
Orosius's  History  of  the  World,  68 
Ostmen,  59 


INDEX 


691 


Oswald,  47 

Oudenarde,  battle  of,  534 

Outlanders,  674 

Owen,  70 

Oxford,  provisions  of,  208 

Paleolithic  men,  13 

Pallium,  160 

Palmerston,  Lord,  648,  655,  657 

Panama,    Drake's   crossing   of   the 

Isthmus  of,  358 
Paris,   Peace    of,  of  1763,   571  ;  of 

I7$3,  593:  of  l856>  648 

Parish  councils,  664 

Parliament,  origin  of,  207  ;  introduc- 
tion of  the  commons  into,  210; 
under  Henry  III,  2 1 2 ;  of  Simon  de 
Montfort,  2  r  2 ;  of  1 295, 2 1 3 ;  attack 
of,  on  church,  242 ;  growth  of,  246 ; 
Good,  247  ;  under  Henry  IV,  264; 
decrease  of  power  of,  284;  sub- 
serviency to  Henry  VIII,  297 ;  Re- 
formation Parliament,  298;  discord 
between  James  I  and,  407  ;  strug- 
gle of  Charles  I  with,  413  ;  draws 
up  Petition  of  Right,  414  ;  Short, 
433;  Long,  434;  Rump,  451,454; 
Little,  459 ;  and  Charles  II,  467  ; 
Convention,  469 ;  Cavalier,  469 ; 
recognition  of  power  of,  485 ; 
under  William  III,  523  ;  in  eigh- 
teenth century,  541  ;  corruption  in, 
548  ;  defects  in  representation  in, 
598  ;  reform  in,  601 

Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  665 

Patterson,  William,  527 

Paulinus,  46 

Peace,  the,  after  1815,  617 

Peasants'  Insurrection  of  1381,  248 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  620,  622,  633,  641 

Pelham,  Henry,  562 

"  Pelican,"  359 

Penal  Code,  reform  of,  619 

Peninsular  Campaign,  614 

Peter  des  Roches,  bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 204 

Petitioners,  487 

Petty  wars  of  nineteenth  century, 
652 

Philip  II  of  Spain  marries  Queen 
Mary,  322 ;  invades  England,  363 


Physical-force  Chartists,  636 

Picts,  1 6,  31,  36,  48 

Pie-powder  courts,  200 

Pilgrim  Fathers,  404 

Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  303 

Pipe  Rolls,  128 

Pitt,  William,  opposes  Walpole, 
556 ;  ministry  of,  562 ;  relations 
of,  with  George  III,  577 ;  favors 
conciliation  with  America,  591 

Pitt,  William,  the  younger,  595 ;  and 
French  Revolution,  604 ;  and  Ire- 
land, 608 ;  resigns,  609 

Pittsburg,  564 

Plague,  the,  493 

Plassey,  battle  of,  571 

Pocket  boroughs,  598 

Poitiers,  battle  of,  241 

Pole,  Cardinal,  324 

Political  parties,  origin  of,  486 

Poor  law,  of  Elizabeth,  367 ;  repealed, 
630;  new,  630 

Poor  priests,  Wycliffe's,  252 

Popish  plot,  473 

Post  nati,  393 

Postage,  introduction  of  cheap, 
631 

Potteries,  10 

Poynings's  Law,  304,  593 

Praemunire,  296 

Pragmatic  Sanction,  558 

Prayer  book,  formation  of,  310 

Prehistoric  races,  12 

Presbyterianism,  431,  445,  447,  450, 
470,  518 

Preston  Pans,  battle  of,  549 

Pride's  Purge,  451 

Prime  ministership,  origin  of,  547 

Primer,  in  English,  307 

Printing  introduced  into  England, 
288 

Privy  council,  526 

Protectorate,  of  duke  of  Somerset, 
310,  316  ;  of  Cromwell,  460 

Protestants  and  Catholics,  definition 

w  of<  333 

Protestant  Duke,  475,  499 
Protestation,  Great,  409 
Prynne,  William,  422 
Puritanism,   under  Elizabeth,   334, 
347  ;  under  James  I,  386,  390,  404 ; 


692 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


under  Charles  I,  416,  421,  424; 
in  the  Long  Parliament,  438 
Pym,  John,  414,  433,  440,443,  468 

Quakers,  446,  460,  470 
Quebec,  564 
Queensland,  670 
Quo  Warranto  writs,  489 

Radical  party,  623 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  354,  376,  400, 
402 

Ramillies,  battle  of,  533 

Ranulf  Flambard,  119,  120,  126 

"  Raven,"  65 

Recognitions,  150 

Reform  Bill  of  1832,  624,  628;  of 
1867,  658;  of  1884-1885,  662 

Reformation,  foundations  of,  297 ; 
stages  of,  305 ;  completion  of, 
311  ;  in  Scotland,  342 

Regicides,  468 

Regular  clergy,  51 

R'enaissance,  286 

Representation,  American  and  Eng- 
lish ideas  of,  587 ;  defects  in, 

597 

Revolt  of  1173,  1 66 
Revolution  of  1688,  509 
Revolutionary  Society,  603 
Rhe,  attack  on  the  Isle  of,  412 
Rhodes,  Cecil  J.,  674,  677 
Richard  Creur  de  Lion,  171,  172 
Richard  de  Lucy,  148 
Richard,  duke  of  York,  271 
Richard   II,   247 ;    meets   rebels  of 

1381,  249;  takes  up  the  work  of 

government,  258;  is  deposed  and 

murdered,  260 
Richard  III,  274 
Richmond,  earl  of,  274 
Ridolfi  Plot,  350 
Right,  Petition  of,  415 
Rights  of  Man,  Declaration  of  the, 

602 

Riots,  Lord  George  Gordon,  599 
Rising  of  1745,  549 
Rivers  of  England,  5 
Rizzio,  David,  343 
Robert,  duke  of  Normandy,  91 
Robert  of  Mortain,  102 


Robert,  son  of  William  the  Con- 
queror, 113,  114,  119 

Roberts,  Lord,  675 

Roger  of  Wendover,  192 

Rollo,  first  duke  of  Normans,  88 ; 
successors  of,  88 

Roman  Britain,  20,  30 ;  decay  of,  30 

Roman,  conquest,  20;  camps  as  sites 
of  modern  cities,  24;  population 
of  Britain,  24;  towns  in  Britain, 
24;  building,  25;  villas  i-n  Britain, 
26;  wall,  26;  industries,  27;  roads, 
27;  coins,  28;  inscriptions,  29; 
forts,  31;  troops  withdrawn,  32; 
law  in  England,  191 

Root  and  Branch  Bill,  439 

Roses,  Wars  of  the,  269,  275 ; 
effects  of,  281 

Rotten  boroughs,  598,  624 

Roundheads,  443 

Royal  Society,  496 

Royalist  and  parliamentarian  theo- 
ries of  government,  387 

Runes,  40 

Rural  life,  in  Roman  Briton,  26;  in 
Saxon  England,  71 

Russell,  execution  of,  477 

Russell,  Lord  John,  625,  633 

Rye  House  Plot,  477 

Ryswick,  Peace  of,  524 

St.  Albans,  chroniclers  of,  192  ;  coun- 
cil of,  in  1213,  179 
St.  Benedict,  51;  rule  of,  51 
St.  Giles's  church,  Edinburgh,  432 
St.  Martin,  church  of,  45 
St.  Patrick,  48 
St.    Paul's    Cathedral,   burning   of, 

493 

Salic  Law,  232 
Salisbury  Cathedral,  187 
Salisbury,  Lord,  665 
Salisbury,  Oath  of,  112,  136 
Saxon  England,  36 
Saxons,  31,  36;  settlements  of,  38 ; 

language  of,  39 

Scandinavian  races  as  settlers,  88 
Schism  Act,  542 
Schools    under   Edward   VI,    313  ; 

free  elementary,  660 
Scone,  Stone  of,  224 


INDEX 


693 


Scotch-Irish,  539 

Scotland,  invasion  of,  by  William  the 
Conqueror,  107 ;  invasion  of,  by 
Henry  II,  167  ;  conquest  of,  by 
Edward  I,  224;  regains  independ- 
ence, 226 ;  reformation  in,  342  ; 
rebellion  of  1637  in,  431 ;  conquest 
of,  by  Cromwell,  455 ;  union  of, 
with  England,  536 

Scots,  31,  36,  48 

Scottish  missions,  46 

Scriptorium,  193 

Scutage,  155 

Sebastopol,  646,  648 

Secular  clergy,  51 

Sedgemoor,  battle  of,  499 

Self-denying  Ordinance,  448 

Self-government  in  England,  664, 
678 

Senlac,  battle  of,  95 

Separatists,  404 

Sepoy  rebellion,  650 

Sepoys,  568 

Serfdom,  201 ;  disappearance  of,  245 

Seven  bishops,  petition  of  the,  504 

Seven  Years'  War,  562 

Shaftesbury,  Anthony  Ashley 
Cooper,  earl  of,  484,  493 

Shakespeare,  377 

Sheep  farming,  315 

Sheriff,  in  Anglo-Saxon  times,  79; 
under  William  I,  104 ;  under 
Henry  II,  153 

Sherwood  forest,  8 

Ship  money,  425,  437 

Shire  mote,  79 

Shire  reeve,  79 

Shires,  division  of  England  into,  79 

Shrewsbury,  battle  of,  267 

Shrines,  destruction  of,  302 

Sidmouth,  Lord,  619 

Sidney,  Algernon,  477 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  375 

Silchester,  28 

Simon  of  Montfort,  208 

Simony,  1 17 

Slave  trade,  beginning  of,  355  ;  abo- 
lition of,  609 

Slavery  in  the  colonies,  abolition  of, 
628 

Sluys,  battle  of,  234 


Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  444, 

470 

Somerset,  6 

Somerset,  duke  of,  310,  317 
Somerset,  Robert  Carr,  earl  of,  396 
Sophia,  electress  of  Hanover,  529, 

542 

South  Africa,  672 
South  African  federation,  675 
South  African  Republic,  674 
South  Kensington  Museum,  643 
South  Sea  Bubble,  545 
South  Sea  Company,  544 
Spain,  war  with,  under  Charles  I, 
411;  war  of  the  Protectorate  with, 
462 

Spanish  Armada,  364 
Spanish  Netherlands,  530 
Spanish  Succession,  War  of  the,  529 
Spanish  war  of  1 739-1 743,  557 
Spenser,  Edmund,  370,  375 
Stamford  Bridge,  battle  of,  95 
Stamp  Act  Congress,  587 
Statutes,  of   Wales,  220;    of   Pro- 
visors,  242  ;  of  Praemunire,  242  ; 
of   Laborers,    244,    247 ;    against 
heretics,  254 ;  The  Reformation, 
298 ;  of  Supremacy,  298, 300, 302  ; 
of  Six  Articles,  305,  311;  of  Uni- 
formity, 312,  470 ;  of  Apprentices, 
337;  Petition  of  Right,  414;  Tri- 
ennial,   437 ;     Conventicle,    470, 
621  ;  Five-Mile,  470,  621  ;  Corpo- 
ration, 471,  621 ;  Test,  473,  621  ; 
Habeas    Corpus,    492;     Mutiny, 
512;  Toleration,   512;    licensing, 
513;  Settlement,  528,  630;  Occa- 
sional Conformity,  541 ;  Property 
Qualification,    542;    Stamp,    586, 
589;  "Intolerable,"  589;  "  Town- 
shend,"  589 ;  Catholic  Emancipa- 
tion, 622;  Reform  of  1832,  626; 
Factory,  629;    Municipal  Corpo- 
rations Reform,  631 ;  Irish  Land, 
660;    Irish  Church   Disestablish- 
ment,  660 ;    Municipal    Corpora- 
tions, 663  ;  Coercion,  665 
Steam  power,  introduction  of,  579 
Stephen  of  Blois,  claim  of,  129 ;  war 
of,  with  Matilda,  130;  and  Treaty 
of  Wallingford,  140 


694 


A  SHORT   HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 


Stephenson,  George,  634 

Stirling  Castle,  225 

Stoke,  battle  of,  279 

Stonehenge,  13 

Stuart,  the  House  of,  384 

Suez  Canal,  662 

Supreme  Court  of  Judicature,  661 

Sweden,  foundation  of,  85 

Swegen,  king  of  Denmark,  86 

Sydney,  670 

Tasmania,  670 

Taxes,  under  Edward  1, 216;  poll  tax 
of  1379,  248;  under  Henry  VII, 
282 ;  under  James  I,  408 ;  under 
Charles  I,  417,  424;  under 
Charles  II,  468;  made  annual 
under  William  III,  511 

Tea,  496 

Telford,  581 

Temple,  Sir  William,  481 

Teutonic  origin  of  English,  39 

Theaters  at  London,  377 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  50,  52 

Thirty  Years'  War,  394 

Thirty-nine  Articles,  311,  332 

"  Thorough,"  the  policy  of,  428 

Three  Estates,  215 

Ticonderoga,  564 

Tobacco  introduced  into  England, 
354,  370 

Tory  party,  origin  of,  485  ;  adher- 
ents of,  488 ;  policy  of,  524 ;  un- 
der Queen  Anne,  539,  541  ;  new, 
596;  in  power  in  1815,618;  called 
Conservative,  633 

Tower  of  London,  142 

Towns,  growth  of  Roman,  23 ;  decay 
of  Roman,  43  ;  in  Saxon  England, 
72 ;  growth  of,  in  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, 196;  in  fifteenth  century, 
272 

Trade,  under  Normans,  143;  influ- 
ence of  crusades  on,  174;  in 
thirteenth  century,  198;  under 
Edward  III,  231 ;  growth  of,  in 
fifteenth  century,  273 ;  encouraged 
by  Henry  VII,  284 ;  under  Eliza- 
beth, 352,  369;  under  Cromwell, 
456;  under  Charles  II,  478;  laws 
against,  in  Ireland,  539;  after 


War  of  Spanish  Succession,  544; 

unions,  634  ;  free,  641 
Trafalgar,  battle  off  Cape,  61 1 
Transvaal,  673 ;  colony  of,  675 
Trial  by  jury,  origin  of,  150 
Triple  Alliance,  479 
Trivium  and  quadrivium,  189 
Troyes,  Treaty  of,  268,  275 
Truce  of  God,  91 
Tudor  family,  genealogy  of,  278 
Tunscip,  71 
Tyndale,  306 
Tyrrel,  Sir  James,  274 

Union  jack,  537 
Unitarians,  446 
United  Irishmen,  606 
United  Kingdom,  607 
Universities,  origin  of,  188-190 
Utrecht,  Treaty  of,  534 

Vandyke,  495 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  468 

Venetian  trading  with  England,  273 

Verlamion,  16 

Veto  power,  541 

Victoria,  colony  of,  670 

Victoria  Cross,  648 

Victoria,  Queen,  accession  of,  632 ; 
marriage  of,  632  ;  industrial  prog- 
ress under,  634 ;  Empress  of  In- 
dia, 651  ;  diamond  jubilee  of,  677; 
death  of,  677 

Vienna,  treaties  of,  615 

Vikings,  59 

Villages  in  thirteenth  century,  200 

Vill,    villeinage,    villeins,    201,   202, 

245 
Virginia,  354 

Wager  of  battle,  no 

Wager  of  law,  80 

Wakefield,  battle  of,  271 

Wales,   invasion  of,  by  Henry  II, 

167;  conquest  of,  by  Edward  I, 

219;   Statute  of,  220;  prince  of, 

220;  rebellion  in,   266 
Wallace,  William,  224 
Wallingford,  Treaty  of,  140 
Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  546 ;  policy  of, 

548 ;  and  war  with  Spain,  557 


INDEX 


695 


Walsingham,  Sir  Francis,  331 

Wandewash,  battle  of,  571 

Wapentakes,  80 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  279 

War  of  the  French  Revolution,  605 

War  of  1812  with  the  United  States, 

613 

Warren  Hastings,  649 
Warwick,  Richard  Neville,  earl  of, 

272 

Washington,  George,  592 
Waterloo,  battle  of,  614 
Watling  Street,  43 
Wat  Tyler,  249 
Watt,  James,  579 
Wedmore,  treaty  of,  63,  65 
Wellington,  Arthur  Wellesley,  duke 

of,   in    India,  614;    at  Waterloo, 

614;  resigns  from  ministry,  624; 

leads  Conservatives,  633 
Wentworth,  Thomas,  earl  of  Straf- 

ford,  414,  419,  427,  433,  435 
Wergeld,  82 
Wesley,  Charles,  552 
Wesley,  John,  552 
West  Indies,  conflicts  with  Spaniards 

in>  358 

Westminster  Assembly,  445 
Westminster  Confession,  446 
Weston,     Lord     Treasurer     under 

Charles  I,  419 

West-Saxon  overlordship,  56 
West   Saxons,  settlements   of,  38; 

conquer  the  Danelaw,  70 
Whigs,  origin  of,  487  ;  adherents  of, 
488 ;  power  of,  in  towns,  490 ;  pol- 
icy of,  524;  Junto,  526;  under 
Queen  Anne,  539,  541  ;  in  power 
under  George  I,  543 ;  defeat  To- 
ries, 623;  call  themselves  Liberals, 

633 

Whitby,  synod  of,  48 ;  poetry  at,  53 
White  Tower,  141,  142 
Whitefield,  George,  552 
Whitehall  palace,  436,  443,  452,  459 
Wight,  Isle  of,  settlement  of  Jutes 

on,  38 


Wilkes,  John,  583 

William  the  Conqueror,  contests  of, 
91  ;  marriage  of,  92  ;  invades 
England,  93 ;  conquers  at  Hast- 
ings, 95 ;  conquers  in  England, 
96 ;  crowned  king,  97  ;  introduces 
feudalism,  103;  and  church,  104, 
107  ;  conquests  of,  in  Scotland 
and  Wales,  107  ;  administration 
of,  108-111  ;  compiles  Domesday 
Book,  in;  position  and  charac- 
ter of,  112  ;  death  of,  113 

William  II  (called  Rufus),  113, 
114,  117,  118 

William  III  (of  Orange),  475,  505; 
invited  to  England,  506;  accession 
of,  509;  taxes  and  legislation 
under,  511;  fights  battle  of  Boyne, 
516;  reconquers  Ireland,  517; 
and  Scotland,  518 ;  wars  with 
France,  520,  529  ;  personal  posi- 
tion of,  522 ;  death  of,  531 

William  IV,  accession  of,  623 ; 
death  of,  632 

William  of  Malmesbury,  141 

Willoughby  and  Chancellor,  353 

Winchester,  a  center  of  learning, 
67  ;  fair  at,  199 

Witan,  66,  78 

Witenagemot,  78 

Wolfe,  General,  564 

Wolsey,  290,  295 

Wool-raising  districts  of  England, 
232 

Woolsack,  the,  399 

Worcester,  battle  of,  456 

Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  495 

Written  records,  203 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  320 

Wyatt  and  Surrey,  374 

Wycliffe,  John,  251 

York,  House  of,  genealogy  of,  270 
York,  Great  Council  at,  434 
York  Minster,  46 
Yorktown,  battle  of,  593 
Young  Ireland  party,  638 


Of  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


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UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA 
BRANCH    OF    THE    COLLEGE    OF    AGRICULTURE 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


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FEB  2  5 


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IJheyney,  E«P. 

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Short  hisjtoiy  of  Engla 

id. 

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LIBRARY,  BRANCH  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE 


